


Keith: beyond the paladin

by SilverBardIcarus



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Keithtober, Klance as dads, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 13:35:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 29
Words: 37,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16159973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverBardIcarus/pseuds/SilverBardIcarus
Summary: A collection of short stories portraiting Keith's present life, his background and also some random AU and lots of Klance, following the Keithtober prompt.





	1. Chapter 1

**Day 1: Warm blanket**

 

Keith felt like a coward, hiding inside Red and avoiding being with the rest of the paladins; even more Allura, who wasn’t looking at his face since they discovered he’s half galra. As if he wanted to be one. He was used to people looking down on him and disliking him without a reason, and he thought it couldn’t hurt him since he already passed through it; he was wrong, apparently. It hurted like mad.

Every time he was bad mouthed started coming back to him. His head was a mess and he felt like crying. However, the tears never came to him. Was that a galra characteristic? He didn’t know. The worst part was trying to hide this feeling from his brother; Shiro always knew when he wasn’t fine and tried his best to cheer him up. Although the one who used to do the talking was Adam, Shiro always sat near them, looking worried and awkward. The memory made him smile bitterly.

“Knock knock, who’s there?” a surprising voice made him jump. He looked down and saw Lance there, waving at him. “Mr. Sharpshooter, of course.”

“Go away, Lance.” his voice didn’t sound as strong as he wanted to, and he cursed his weakness.

Contrary to his will, the red lion lowered its head and opened its mouth to Lance, which made him even more angry.

“Traitor.” he mumbled.

“Thanks, girl, I’m going in.” said Lance to Red.

Keith was ready to dismiss the blue paladin without even looking at him, but he was surprised when something soft fell on his shoulder. He looked at it and was surprised to see a flannel blanket. It smelled like Lance and unconsciously he wrapped his body with the fabric, closing his eyes.

“What are you doing here all by yourself?” Lance asked, sitting down near the red paladin with his legs crossed and looking at him without judgment or malice.

“Bonding with Red.” Keith answered, his face buried in the blanket.

“Try not to dirt this. Is the only thing I have from home.” the blue paladin said as a warning. 

Keith rolled his eyes.

“I always cover myself with this when I’m feeling down or when I miss home… You know… Er…” he sighed, thinking for a while before saying anything “I think it’s wrong what they’re doing, even if they can’t avoid it” he said in a small voice.

When Keith looked at him, he was facing the opposite direction, trying to avoid showing his true emotions to Keith.

“I know how you feel.” Keith snickered and Lance glanced at him, offended “I do, okay? The reason why I knew who you were when you tried to rescue Shiro is because I’ve seen how people treated you at the garrison.” he bit his lips “I mean, while you were the problem child with no future, I was the comic relief and the dumb cuban boy who would never reach his sister’s success. Guess I got used to it.”

Lance looked shaken by what he said, and avoided eye contact with Keith again. The red paladin was astonished by that unknown side of Lance. They sat there, Keith staring at the blue paladin while he hid his face.

“Thanks, Lance.” he said in a soft voice “I mean it.”

A meek smile started arising slowly on his face as he turned to face to Keith.

“Give them some time. Family always come together after a fight.”

Keith remembered how Adam and Shiro always fought with each other but it never lasted more than a day; one memory of Adam nagging him to clean his bedroom made his heart warm little by little. He even remembered a very old feeling of walking around on his father shoulder. He felt like he could fly.

Somehow, in the middle of the comfortable silence between them, their eyes locked together and they shared a feeling neither of them could explain. It was as if the time have stopped for them in that moment, and there was only both of them in the whole universe.

Lance chose to clear his throat and break their connection.

“I brought some snacks. Wanna watch something with me?”

Keith decided to back off and have fun with Lance, the bad voices from the past shut for good. Putting a smile on his face was easy as he was feeling warm by the blanket and Lance’s proximity.


	2. Day 2: Tyranny of a lonely wolf

**Day 2 (Black Paladin): Tyranny of a lonely wolf**

 

“Paladins of Voltron, we’re sending a distress sign. Our planet has been taken by galra two weeks ago and we had to evacuate it.” said the woman on the screen. Her cloudy eyes were double the human size, her skin was yellowish with silver spirals on her forearms and face, which seemed to have an ancient tree texture. Everyone but Allura seemed mesmerized by the alien woman.

“Are you having difficulties in finding a planet to accommodate?” Allura asked, worried.

“We’ve found a near planet without inhabitants.” she spoke in a calm, old voice. “You must be wondering why the distress sign if we’ve already lost our war… The galra empire invaded our planet because they were interested in our flora, which is peculiar if compared to the others, and now they’re extracting our trees to use as a second quintessence source.”

“Quintessence?!” the paladins shouted in unison.

“Indeed. However, that ‘quintessence’ is not for free. Our life is bound to the trees. When one dies, so does the other.” she sighed, sounding to be in deep sorrow “My people is dying, paladins. We need help.”

The silence befell on them. It was a critical situation that needed immediate solution, and everyone was tense. Not only they were still mourning Shiro’s supposed death - they hadn’t found him yet and reached that conclusion -, they were also having an issue in trusting Keith’s leadership, because he couldn’t accept Shiro’s disappearance. Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing as their eyes ended up looking in Keith’s direction, waiting for a command or something.

“We have to help them.” he was staring the floor. It was difficult for him to pilot the black lion. He felt like an impostor trying to follow his older brother footsteps, unsuccessfully.

Keith was reticent about leading them; nonetheless, it was what Shiro expected him to do in his place. His heart always hurt when he sat in the empty seat, as well a the empty space on his chest. Connection with Black, even in a superficial level, made him nostalgic, as if Shiro was still there with him.

 

Black roared as the paladins crossed the space, heading to the planet of Adsaliks. It was in the same quadrant they were, making it easier to follow their path with the castle of lions.

When they arrived in the greenest planet they’ve ever seen after Olkarion - despite the dense atmosphere -, they noticed galra bases in four spots of the visible part of the planet; something about them made Keith uncomfortable.

“Should we enter head on?” asked Lance, impatient.

“No, wait!” Keith answered “Something is not right, but I can’t put my finger on it yet.”

“Guys, look!!” Pidge said, calling their attention to a clearing on which some tree people were fighting the galra.

“Palma hasn’t said anything about reminiscent people” said Hunk, referring to the leader of the adsalians and the one who sent the distress signal.

“Keith, we can’t wait, they need us now!” Allura said, and Blue growled in agreement.

“Just a moment, I need to figure what is wrong!” his forehead was sweating from the tension. The others were right: if they didn’t act now, the adsalians would be dead before they reached the surface of the planet.

“We need to do it now!” when she saw two of the resistance inhabitants get knocked down, Pidge broke the formation, moving forward.

“Pidge, no— I know what’s wrong!” screamed Lance, much to Keith’s surprise “There are no galra ships around!”

It was already too late. Pidge was far from their reach, and Hunk tried to follow her as to stop what they knew that was coming in their direction, followed closely by the other paladins. From behind one of the moons of the planet, six galra war ships appeared and were quickly moving in their direction, their fleet in front, shooting at the green lion.

“Pidge!” Hunk cried, forming his shoulder cannon. The distance, however, made it hard to hit the smaller ships.

Green received a massive amount of laser shots and turned off immediately. Keith was alarmed, his head running wild from the adrenaline on his veins. If something had happened to Pidge, it would be solely his fault. He couldn’t handle another death in such a short time, with him to blame once again.

“ _Patience yields focus_ ” he felt like Shiro said that to him in that moment, making him snap out of his self pity state. Their team needed him.

“Allura, try to reach Pidge as fast as you can! Lance, help Hunk with the fleet, I’ll aim at the bigger ones. When you’re done, we’ll form voltron.” he said without the shadow that covered his mind.

“Roger that!” said Lance “Good to have you back on track.” he said in a lower voice.

Coran chose that moment to enter the fight, shooting the nearer fleet ships and passing through them, heading for Adsaliks atmosphere. While getting near it, he shot the galra base by distance, catching the robots attention. The rebels headed to their damaged ship in order to protect themselves from the lasers.

“Pidge, you’re alright?’

“Yes, just out of energy for now.” she sounded tired but mostly annoyed.

When the nearer war ship got close to Green, Blue attacked with ice directly on the cannon. Hunk and Lance were taking down another ship and Black ripped the third one open. He felt proud of Shiro’s— his kitty. Landing on the planet was the castle of lions.

“Now, guys, form Voltron!!” Keith shouted.

“Yeah!’ they answered.

After forming voltron, they took down the remaining ships. Since no more war ships arrived, he supposed they didn’t warn the galra empire about their arrival in the quadrant, which made it easier to destroy the bases and rescue the inhabitants.

“It’s time to go home, team.” Keith finally could breathe.

 

When they went left their lions inside the castle of lions, Keith was fuming.

“Pidge.” he said in a hard voice.

“Cut me some slack, okay?” she was heading to her room.

“The next time you do something like that, I’m forbidding the others of helping you” he didn’t mean it, but the intention on his words made her stop and turn around.

“And what am I supposed to do if you’re not suited for a leader? I mean, I wasn’t going to meddle your business, but since you did it with mine, you should lis—”

“No, you’re right.” Keith frowned, his anger rising “I’m a shitty leader and I know it, but if I’m piloting the damn black lion, you should as well obey it!”

“And getting everyone killed?!” she yelled back at him, losing her cool.

“Keith, you’re not—” Lance started, but he raised a hand to the red pilot, shutting him off.

“What about getting yourself killed because you thought you knew what you’re doing, huh?! We are a damn team, for crying out loud!!!”

“That’s what you say now, when a while ago you were a impulsive lone wolf who sucks at dealing with people.” she raised her arms, screaming even louder “What changed now? Your status as half galra? Don’t feed me sh*t.”

The other paladins gathered around the both of them, concerned. Keith looked at them and saw that everyone seemed to agree with Pidge’s statement. His feelings deflated when he felt every insecurities coming back to him, and his silence made Pidge return to consciousness as well. She looked really ashamed as the silence extended, and was the first one to break it.

“Keith, look—”

“No, you’re right.” he whispered, his voice caught on his throat. He cleared his throat. “I don’t understand why Shiro choose me of all people. And sure I’d give not only the black lion, but the whole Voltron if it meant to bring him back to us.”

He felt Lance’s hand on his shoulder but couldn’t gather the strength to move it from there. He was so tired and sad and afraid he was turning into a coward, weak version of himself that made him ashamed of defrauding Shiro’s trust.

Pidge’s hand touched his forearm, and only then he noticed her proximity. All the other paladins touched him as if to reassure him that they were there for him. His eyes started swimming in tears.

“I’m sorry, Keith” Pidge mumbled, as a kid who got caught red handed.

“You’re worthy, you know?” Hunk said, looking as worried as a mother hen.

Allura didn’t know what to say, so she smiled at him.

When Keith glanced at Lance, his words from a time ago came back to him.

“ _Give them some time. Family always come together after a fight._ ”

And he damn felt like they were a family right in that moment.

“Please, don’t put yourself in danger again. I wouldn’t be able to take losing another dear person now.” he said through the lump on his throat.

Pidge hugged him tightly, some tears on the corners of her eyes. When she released him and started heading back to her room, she said over her shoulder:

“Don’t expect another one of those for the rest of your life.” she chuckled “Go and get some rest, leader, you look awfully tired.”

Keith smiled for the first time since Zarkon’s battle.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was a dense chapter to write... My interpretation of Keith's feelings would be a turmoil of guilt and sadness in that moment, so it was very difficult to portrait (and I don't know if I did it right). Pretty please, tell me if there's anything wrong with my ortography or grammar,'cause I was in a hurry while writing it and didn't revise it thoroughly as usual, since tomorrow I have an italian test and didn't even start studying for it (don't follow my example). And English isn't my first language, so I may have made some mistakes. And if you liked it, please share it or at least comment on it, it would make me very happy and motivated, seriously!!  
> Lots of love and see ya tomorrow! ~Lee


	3. Day 3: Rocket

**Day 3 (childhood memories): Rocket**

 

It had been six months since Keith joined the Garrison and he got used to the routine Shiro created for him, saying he needed discipline if he wanted to be a soldier. The last thing he wanted to do was disappoint the first person who believed in him.

As a matter of routine, he was heading to Shiro’s bedroom to meet him so they could go jogging as their first activity of the morning. Adam would often join them, but sometimes he had to prepare for tests or just study; the man was a huge mechanic nerd and nothing could stop him when he started talking about building spaceships or new cars.

When Keith was turning left in the corridor that lead to their dorm room, he heard their louds and angry voices.

“ _They’re at it again._ ” Keith rolled his eyes, sighing as he went to knock on the door.

“You’re not going to give this to Keith!” Adam yelled and Keith froze, hand in a fist stopping mid-air “It’s mine and I’m saying no!”

“But love, I thought we already decided on that.” Shiro huffed exasperatedly.

“Okay then, Takashi, do whatever you want. But it’ll be your responsibility.” his voice was getting closer to the door; Keith ran back to where came from and pretended he was arriving at the same time Adam was leaving.

He was intrigued and slightly hurt. Was him the reason they were fighting? Although they used to bicker almost everyday, even knowing their silence treatment to each other wouldn’t last a day, he was apprehensive about being a burden to them.

Adam saw him coming at the distance and his furrowed brows dissolved in a warm expression, a sincere smile on his lips. Keith blinked twice to be sure he was seeing it for real.

“Mornin’, Keith. Did you sleep we—” he examined the short boy’s face “Are you feeling alright?” Adam sounded worried.

“I-I am, I’m just sleepy.” Keith knew he wasn’t that convincing because Adam was sharp when it came to feelings “Is Shiro up?”

“Yes, Takashi is waiting for you” he looked at his watch “ —  I’m late, gotta go!”

“ _Very subtle, Adam_ ” he thought, entering their bedroom. Shiro hid something behind his back, acting suspiciously and avoiding eye contact.

“Shiro, is everything alright?” Keith raised an eyebrow.

“Y-Yes!” he said in a high pitched voice, then cleared his throat “Adam and I have something to give you.”

A side of Keith wanted to laugh at how awkward Shiro was around feelings and things related to that, but he was concerned about the two of them fighting because of him.

“Shiro, look...  I don’t want to cause any trouble for you two, nor get in the middle of your life. If Adam doesn’t want to give whatever that is to me, it’s his right. He barely know me and I understand it, seriously…” as he was speaking, his own words hurted him, but he needed to show he was okay and conciliate the both of them.

“What are you even talking about, for Pete’s sake?!” he had no idea what made Keith think like that.

“I mean, I heard you—”

“You did?!” he scratched his nose, embarrassed.

“Me and half of the Garrison, yes.”

Shiro facepalmed, mumbling something Keith couldn’t hear.

“Keith, it’s not what you think, I swear to you.” he showed what he was hiding behind his back.

It was a red, silver and blue rocket toy. It was old and the painting was missing in some parts of it, as if it crashed. Shiro put it on the boy’s hand.

“This is the rocket Adam’s dad gave him as a celebration gift for entering the garrison. We’re kind of late giving you this, but congratulations for entering.” he smiled shyly and expected Keith’s reaction.

“I’m really thankful, but Adam—”

“He was being neurotic as always, because his first time launching it ended up kind of bad because we didn’t know how to do it properly.” he laughed, probably remembering the scene “I told him you were a big boy and wouldn’t get hurt, but you know how he is when he starts ranting.”

Keith kept staring at his hands, not believing someone would give an almost stranger such a valuable toy. His vision started blurring as the tears started to well up against his will. He hated to be such a crybaby when he received affection from people he admired and loved. Shiro was taken aback and then frantically moved his hands in the air, not knowing what to do.

Adam chose that moment to return to the room.

“Takashi, I forgot my keys— What the— why is our boy crying, what have you said to him?!” Keith was surprised by how quick the emotion passed through Adam’s eyes. He entered smiling sheepishly, it turned into worry and finished on full mother hen mode.

“I didn’t say anything, I swear!”

“Thanks, guys.” Keith said, moved. “I will keep this forever.”

Adam stopped glaring at Shiro and blinked a couple of times, then smiled as bright as the sunlight.

“It’s just an old toy, but if you liked it that much, it makes me happy.” he sighed in relief “Thank God you didn’t make me kill Takashi so early in the morning.”

Shiro poked him on the ribs with his elbow, and the three of them laughed at the whole misunderstanding situation. Adam got close to Shiro, muttering something that seemed like a “sorry” and kissed him on the cheek. Keith pouted.

“Eww guys, no PDA please.” he was glad they were in good terms again.

“Oh, no PDA? Did you hear that, Takashi?” they shared an eye communication and Adam ruffled Keith’s hair and held his arms, while Shiro put the rocket on the bedside table and started tickling him until he cried ‘uncle’.

 

 

“Let’s launch the rocket together later?” Adam told him later when they’re heading to the dining hall.

“Okay, but don’t mess with my hair again.”

He answered sticking his tongue out at him and Shiro complained, saying he was being childish.

Aaaand they started bickering. Again. Keith rolled his eyes.

“ _Family..._ ”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Geez, I did it!! Well, tecnically it's still day 3 in my country, so I'm on time.  
> I loved writing it! I don't know why my Keith ended up being a crybaby but he is now. Apparently he cried more when he was younger, but now he avoids letting it roll down his face, kinda proud ain't we?  
> Also, writing about Adashi was so good that I wanted to do it forever! I loved how they're always bickering, as if they went to rivals from lovers but couldn't get rid of the habit of teasing each other. And Adam turned out to be such a tsundere lol whyyy  
> Well, that's it!! Hope you enjoyed this one too, I'm really giving my best and hope your feedback and constructive comments.  
> See ya  
> ~Lee


	4. Day 4: 15 years later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I recommend you to listen this spotify playlist called "Warm fuzzy feeling" (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX5IDTimEWoTd) while reading, I was using to enter the love mood.

**Day 4 (future): 15 years later**

 

_After earth almost getting decimated by the galra, the paladins spent 7 years rebuilding entire civilizations of the planet, as well as fighting against the empire and reconquering planets that eventually joined the coalition. Their war hasn’t come to an end yet, although they’ve reduced their advantage. The paladins gained more experience as a team and from there on followed their own paths through life. Pidge was in charge of researching alien technology to reinforce earth and other planets security. Hunk became one of the highest rank garrison instructor, under the command of the captain of the Atlas ship, Shiro. Allura and Coran had became the coalition ambassadors and helped rebuild the Blade of Marmora with Kolivan and Krolia training the newcomers. Lance started working in earth intel and he would join Keith on espionage missions in unmapped ground. Everyone was doing their best to achieve the universe’s freedom and finally get a rest of senseless deaths and tyranny._

_Lance and Keith’s relationship started blooming on the months that followed earth’s war. In the beginning it was almost impossible to deal with their differences; as they’ve gotten used to each other’s flaws, Keith felt like he earned a treasure he could never afford to lose. Not only Lance has teached him the true meaning of family, his gentleness and abnegation always took him by surprise. Once again, he felt rescued by true love._

 

The rustling sound of someone moving on the bed next to Keith woke him up. Not _someone:_  his Lance, soundly asleep. When he opened his eyes, Lance was laying on his side, facing Keith, his mouth open as he snored.

“ _He’s so handsome._ ” he sighed, feeling so lucky for everything they’ve been through until the present moment.

Lance scratched his broad chest, where lied the matching necklace they had. The pendant was made from rare crystal which connected to its owner life force and was used by couples in war zones to determine if their significant other was still alive; they would exchange the stone after bonding with it, and it would glow until they died. Lance had the red one. On his left hand, the silver wedding ring made Keith’s chest tight, a silly drowsy smile appearing on his lips. Time had it’s way of erasing memories, but Keith knew he would never forget how gorgeous his fianceé looked at the day they married, on exact five years ago.

 

 

The idea of marrying emerged on the day both gathered with the other paladins past three years on a mission that resulted in the vital information of Lotor’s whereabouts; even if he wasn’t captured in the end, at least they were sure he was still alive. Strange enough, Pidge was the one to bring marriage up as a joke, and then Hunk’s mind went wild with the plans for the buffet and Allura offered herself to decorate everything. In the end of that day, the galaxy was ready to see a ceremony, even if the grooms themselves hadn’t agreed to that when Coran sent the invitations.

Keith panicked, thinking he would be rejected by Lance at any moment. However, the blue paladin was the one to get on his knees, tears on his eyes, and ask him if he would give the pleasure of merging his blue with Keith’s red and make the prettiest purple color.

“It’s so cheesy I want to vomit, really.” was Keith’s ironic answer “I loved it.”

The following week, their meeting point was inside the Atlas, where the marriage would happen. Keith didn’t know how many rules they broke in order to make the license so fast and to get Shiro to be their marital judge. Lance’s eyes almost jumped out of his face from the surprise as he entered the ornate room.

Lance was so gorgeous dressed in a blue tux that Keith felt intimidated inside his black one - he terminantly refused to use a red suit and look like an 80’s cassino showrunner. Their eyes met as he was getting close and never parted until the end of the ceremony, since they closed it so their first married kiss could last forever in their imagination.

 

“Hm…” Lance mumbled, turning his back to Keith and waking the black paladin up from his daze.

Lance’s hair was cut in military style. His broad back was so different of how it was on the first time they met. Years of hazardous works in unknown space made him develop lean muscles and made his dark skin even more dark due to sun exposure. Be it then or now, Lance was breathtaking.

Keith traced the scar on his spouse’s back with a light touch, distracted. He unconsciously shivered. Keith snickered. Kosmo decided it was a nice time to teletransport to their room, landing on Keith’s face, who let a surprised “oompf”.

Lance’s soft laughter filled his ears.

“Lemme help you, _cariño_.” his hoarse voice was full of humor as he grabbed Kosmo’s paws and pulled him out of his husband’s face, putting the giant dog in the middle of them. Keith was breathing heavily from the sudden entrance of oxygen on his lungs.

“Good morning, _guapo_ . _Te ves increíble_.” he knew Lance always used spanish when he wanted to make fun of him or call him nicknames, so he answered with the only spanish word he learned from him.

“ _Pendejo._ ”

Lance pinched Keith’s nose, laughing louder.

“You only learn the bad things I teach you!” his hand cupped Keith’s cheek “I’m not kidding, you look incredible.”

Keith blushed.

“So do you.” their eyes met and he felt love pouring out of him in waves. He hoped Lance could feel it as much as he did.

“Are you a black hole?” he asked jokingly, repeating his marriage vows “Because you’re space-al”

Keith laughed as much as he did on the day he heard it for the first time.

“So you’ve remembered what today is…”

“Of course, _bizcochito_. Happy 5th year anniversary.”

“Happy 5th year anniversary” whispered Keith, closing the distance between them. They were almost kissing…

Kosmo licked their mouth.

“Eww—”

“Kosmo, bad boy!”

“They wanted a kiss too, I bet.” said Lance, always spoiling their giant puppy.

Keith left the bed, cleaning his mouth and heading toward the kitchen. Their morning kiss was spoiled and he was sulking and he didn’t want to demostrate it. By the moment he reached the door, his husband was behind him and pulled his arm, wrapping him within his arms. The kiss he was expecting arrived, urgent; a shiver went down his spine like a thunder hitting his body. He let out a quivering exhaled breath and his mouth was once again taken by Lance’s avid lips and tongue. Keith held the back of his head, pulling him closer and gluing their body together.

His back hit the door as the red paladin gently pushed him and he took the opportunity to wrap his legs around his husband’s waist…

Then their wolf jumped on Lance’s back and both fell to the ground.

“Remind me to never get kids if they’ll block us like this everytime.” Keith said, painfully getting up. He was too old for falling like this and his hipbone hurted now.

Lance stayed on the floor, laughing once again. After all these years they’d spent together, he turned into a self confident version of himself who would sincerely laugh when life made him look ludicrous, instead of feeling ashamed of who he was. It was so beautiful to see that Keith’s moody face dissolved into a enchanted one.

Their eyes locked together and he could see Lance’s love mimicking his own, like a mirror. He couldn’t be more happy even if he tried, his heart wouldn’t be able to take it, it was humanly impossible.

Well, he _was_ half galra after all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early today, I was feeling blue and unmotivated, but thank to the support I'm receiving from my friends and my stubborn belief that I have to overcome my obstacles, I'm here to deliver this chapter! It was one of the most romantic and special things I've ever written, and I'm feeling healed by my own words. It's amazing...  
> Aaaand see you tomorrow!  
> ~Lee


	5. Day 5: The Mascot

**Day 5 (biological family): The mascot**

“So this month is our mascot birthday?” Keith felt an older woman, Laura, ruffle his hair and shoved her hand back, crossing his arms. He hated when people touched his hair. And pinched his cheeks. What she did always.

She found it funny, but he knew his dad would be angry if he saw Keith being impolite.

“Laura. stop bothering the poor kid.” a man who looked like a teenage with freckles all around his face and the messier hair Keith ever saw got close to the kid and fixed his hair. With a secretive tone, he said “I’ve got you some candies I smuggled from our house’s halloween preparation. Don’t let you father see it or he won’t allow you to eat more on 31st.”

Keith nodded and gave him a toothless smile - his front teeth both fell - as the guy put the candies on the boy’s open hands.

“Are you giving him sweets again?! He will have diabetes at fifteen, the way you feed him crap, Olsen.” his dad said. Keith tried to hide the candies behind his back unsuccessfully, because his father took it from his hands. He didn’t achieve to sound severe, as a smile was fighting to emerge on his lips.

Kogane father seemed to be a serious and cold person who got nostalgic sometimes, staring at the night sky when in reality it was the opposit; he was prone to sincere smiles, he took Keith on car rides in the desert late at night when the boy got sick and couldn’t sleep. And his habit was to take his son to work instead of a daycare, where he was pampered by each and every firefighter. The boy was treated like their own family.

Keith’s puppy face was so irresistible that he gave him one of the sweets, a lollipop.

“Just this one, okay? And you have to eat your dinner tonight.”

Keith gave him thumbs up and the three adults laughed at the cuteness of the 5 years old boy.

 

Later that month, more specifically on october 31st, the Kogane kid was dressed as a pumpkin, a costume the whole crew voted on and contributed to buy. The overnight team hid inside their rooms so Keith could knock on every door, like he’d do with his classmates if his dad weren’t so busy on Halloween nights. The small boy would rather spend his time with the kind adults who treated him like their helpful mascot than spend time with kids of the same age who looked down on him for not having a mom or joining their festivities.

When it was his father time of giving him treats, the alarm sounded off and his dad took him to Laura’s room, since she was going to stay with other two firefighter and wait for instructions.

“Be a good kid, Keith.” he said kissing him on the forehead. “I’ll come to get you soon and give you your treats.”

“Promish?” Keith put his thumb on his mouth, looking expectant. He didn’t want his dad to ‘go to the stars’ as he was told his mother did.

“Pinky promise.” he smiled to Keith and left.

His back was the last thing he saw.

 

Keith opened his eyes and frantically looked around, only to find Krolia seeming lost in thoughts and with a soft expression on her face.

“Your father was a great man.”

She was a warrior who wasn’t afraid of death, but the thought of being rejected by her son made her unable to embrace him as he displayed that vulnerable look in his eyes. She hadn’t the right to expect acceptance after having left them, even if it was to protect her son, her family.

Keith made the first move, holding her hand tight. He fell like he went back to a chubby cheeked child with glowing eyes, finally finding his way back home. Krolia was once touched by the kindness of an earthling, and despite their son’s personality be a split between them two, Keith resembled his father so much. His gray eyes, his black hair, his shy personality and his microexpressions…

She felt happy that a piece of him, a memory of their love, was right there in front of her, holding her hand and opening up his heart to her. Even if they were stuck in a unknown place together, his display of trust was more than she expected or even deserved.

“Family always come back together in the end.” he smiled, staring at the distance “Someone told me that once.”

Krolia tightened her grip on his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was another family oriented chapter, wow! So many feelings… I think family it’s something we can live without, and I don’t mean biological family, but the sense of a universal family (pretty much the tree of life concept of family). And Keith had so many families, ‘till he ended up being with Lance and forming the last one (read previous chapter, “15 years later”).  
> Now lemme tell you I almost fell down the staircase in my uni because I was glued to my twitter to check out the teaser and comments from people who went to NYCC. Lucky me my friends were in front of me and held me before I fell lol  
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed this short story, it was not one of my best, but I kinda like the result?  
> (no one is gonna read this anyway lol)  
> ~Lee


	6. Day 6: Last Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a sequel to chapter 4 (15 years later)  
> "After earning three families during his pained life, Lance was his final destination, his happy ending. He was his last family."

Day 6 (found family): Last family

 

Keith entered the living room dragging his backpack and trying to get his hair out of his eyes. They were supposed to leave the following day for a 3 month mission on a ex-colony planet searching for new info about Lotor’s whereabouts, or at least pieces of enemy communication about it.

“Want help?” Lance asked, lazily, earning a disbelief stare from Keith.

Laying on the couch, his spouse was combing Kosmo’s fur slowly, and the spoiled wolf lied on his back, belly up and wagging his tail. The man’s easy smile went straight to Keith’s heart, warming him up like the old blanket Lance always carried around, even on his thirties. His man didn’t know how to grow up, and he lowkey loved it.

“You know you’re dirtying the floor I just cleaned, right?” Keith furrowed his brows when saw the massive amount of fur - enough to make another wolf - on the floor.

“I’ll clean it later, _cariño_. Chill.”

“You’re just doing it to avoid packing, aren’t you?” he threw his heavy bag on Lance’s stomach, who let out a surprised and pained huff.

“Heh, you know me well, don't cha?!” Lance scratched the back of his head, his usual gesture of embarrassment.

Incredible how after 15 years he came to learn many small things about his husband, such as his mood, his small gestures and microexpression. And he loved him more and more knowing so much, to the point it hurt to imagine an existence without him.

He pinched Lance’s nose and smiled.

“If you don’t go now, I won’t help you.”

“You’re bullying me, _amorcito_ , not fair.” he sit and pulled Keith by his belt, making him fall on the backpack that was still on his lap. “Maybe you could help with somethi—”

The bell rung at the same time Keith flicked Lance’s forehead. He winced and got up against his will, his hand falling because of the heavy bag.

“What did you put in here, rocks?!”

“Hon’ the door.” said Keith, gently.

While Lance went to the door, Keith started going back to their room to start packing for his lazy husband. Loud voices stopped him from going further. He looked above his shoulder at the friendly invasion that was happening, altogether with the cold wind that blew inside, spreading wolf fur everywhere.

“ _I won’t lose my cool, I won’t lose my cool…_ ” chanted him mentally, pissed off beyond measure. Lance must have felt danger, because he quickly gathered it and threw it away.

When all the group had squeezed inside their small living room, the red paladin was already giving them beverage after spending a while storing what they brought on the fridge and excitedly chatting with Shiro.

Hunk and Allura were cutting the pizza they bought on the way, and Pidge was turning on the home theater. Keith blinked a few times, trying to process the fact that his rowdy relatives were there.

“Guys, why are you here? I thought you were busy.” he said, confused.

“Ah” said Coran, distributing cups to everyone “We were planning this friendly see-you-soon meeting.”

“In fact, we were looking for a place to use as HQ for our parties, and we ended up choosing yours.” Pidge smirked, laying on the couch as like owned the place “That said, I hope you lend us your house key.”

“No way! This is our love nest” Lance put his hand on Keith’s shoulder and kissed his cheek. He rolled his eyes.

“Lance is right, the answer is no.”

Shiro went back to the living room, carrying chicken wings on one hand and a beer on the other. He started drinking occasionally after returning to Earth, and Keith couldn’t put his finger on it, but he felt like Shiro hadn’t overcomed Adam’s death the way everyone thought he did. Keith knew his brother better than anyone, he knew the older man would unconsciously hide his emotion, because of the way he was raised to be a soldier. Even now, it hurt Keith that his second family was sadly torn apart by something greater than all of them: death.

“Love, you’re spacing out, are you okay?” Lance whispered on his ear, feeling his mind wasn’t in there.

“I’m just tired and we didn’t finish packing.” he pinched Lance’s cheek in reprovation of his displicent behaviour.

“Aw, i got it, _cariño_. Can’t we have fun and think about it later?”

Keith sighed. He was right, living in the past or worrying about the future would lead him nowhere.

“I’ve learned an earth game called Dark Stories, who want to play?” Allura asked.

They gathered around her to listen the game rules and spent the next hours playing, as Keith supposed teenagers would do together, not grown up defenders of the universe. But he wasn’t going to complain, since he reminisced about building legos with Adam and Shiro every Friday on his Garrison days.

Soon he forgot about his worries and let go of his sorrowful memories, having as much fun as he was allowed to have. There was a time when he believed good things had a time limit and he wasn’t worthy of having the happiness he unconsciously looked after and saw in other people’s life. Nonetheless, he soon noticed he was surrounded by loving people who proved him wrong.

In the late night, somehow he found himself laying on Lance’s broad chest as he was passing his fingers through his hair and caressing his scalp until his tired body started weighting. He could listen Lance’s voice on his ear, vibrating on his chest as he talked to the others, laughing quietly to not scare his sleepy husband. By the time he woke up,  his annoying yet beloved relatives started leaving one by one.

“Are you going?” he asked, drowsy.

“You guys have to rest, it’s late.” Shiro gently smiled to them, and he couldn’t avoid smiling back to his brother.

If it wasn’t for his kindness and love, Keith wouldn’t be who he was now.

He tried to get up. However, Lance started carrying him princess style and he got scared.

“I’ll fall!”

“Shh, if you don’t move, it will make my job easier. You’re not small either.” he said in a low voice, trying to induce Keith to go back to sleep.

The next time he came back to consciousness, Lance was laying on the bed next to him. Keith rolled and envolved him with his arm and leg. His husband’s warm hand embraced his waist, bringing him close, a tender kiss on his lips.

“I love you, _cariño_.” he whispered.

“I love you too, hon’.” Keith answered in a husky voice before sleeping soundly.

After earning three families during his pained life, Lance was his final destination, his happy ending. He was his last family.

 

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so late in delivering this chapter I thought I wouldn't be able to do it... I'm so tired and it's almost 1 am lol But here I am (again) with a family concept. I'm loving to write about it, because it warms my heart. Family is more than blood, more than kin, and this sense of universal family portraited as the paladins becoming Keith's "relatives" make me glad I dared to write it.  
> Now a personal opinion: adult Keith and Lance are HOT!  
> And last but not the least: Lance is the little spoon and I love it  
> Thanks for reading, see ya tomorrow when I'll continue on writting about married Klance  
> p.s. Please tell me if I made some spelling of grammatical mistake, I was in a hurry and didn't revise it (once again).  
> ~Lee


	7. Day 7: Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I recommend reading the previous chapter to understand a little bit of the dinamic of adult Klance.

**Day 07 (dual wielding): Return**

 

Keith walked in the shadows, trying to approach the empty building which was an old galra base in the planet they were assigned to spy on, trying to find a clue about galra secret weapons or even Lotor’s location. The last time they tried to create Shiro clones, then the giant robot defeated by Atlas, and now they were practically silent for almost a decade. Something big must’ve been happening, making the couple as well as the other paladins worried; even the Blades started getting suspicious after not finding anything using their means.

The coalition was holding their breath in expectation.

The moment the black paladin got to the back of the building, someone grabbed him from behind, restricting Keith's action with their arm, holding him in a choke hold. If he didn’t react, his neck would be broken in a matter of seconds.

He used his weight to lower his head and planted his feet on the ground, grabbing the attacker by the arm and throwing him forward. Keith stomped on their head, breathing harshly, and ran for cover.

“Keith?! Keith, babe, you’re okay?” Lance screamed on his ears through their communicator. Lance was at the distance, checking the situation through his sniper rifle.

“Yes! I guess I got deaf with your screaming, though.” he smirked.

“This is no joke, Keith! The area was supposed to be inhabited.”

“Tell me about it.” he said at the same time a couple of galra robots appeared in front of him.

In one hand he had his bayard and on the other, his mother’s blade. He moved forward, slicing the first with his bayard and stabbing the second on the head before they got time to shoot him or stop the attacks.

“Slow robots.”

“ _Cariño_ , you’re smoking hot.”

The rubber band on his hair broke and his high ponytail turned into a mess of hair everywhere; it fell on his face. He started tying it again with one of the remaining 5 he had on his wrist at the same time he heard the gun shot. He looked up; Lance was in a hill near him, scowling at the leader.

“Why are you here? You’re supposed to be hidden.” Keith said, nonchalant.

“You almost got shot because of your hair!” he was angry, which made his temper rise as well. He was going to complain but something caught his attention, and he started running.

A black armor soldier was sneaking behind Lance. He ran to his husband, who looked confused as the black paladin positioned his blades in an X shape. Keith arrived just in time to stop them before shooting Lance. His BOM sword cut the visor of their helmet and the moment he put his bayard on the soldier’s throat, something about their eyes made him froze.

The pupils were deep red, despite the entirely human face. The worse was not his eye color; it was the eyes shape. Time stopped as Keith were on top of him, trying to figure _how_ , _when_ and _why_.

Lance pushed his arm, taking him off of the older man who looked frozen on the ground as well as the black paladin. He pointed his gun at the man’s head, just in case he tried something. All those years in unknown ground  made him stop hesitating when it came to their enemies and protecting Keith.

“Step aside, Keith.”

“No, Lance, that’s…”

The man’s crimson eyes flashed as he glared at Keith and he rose up, kicking Lance’s gun. The red paladin pulled a knife from belt, pointing at the him. Instead of attacking, he grabbed his head and screamed, trying to pull his helmet off. He fell to his knees. Keith moved towards him without thinking; Lance grabbed his arm. A silent talk went on as they locked their gaze for a brief second.

Lance sighed and let go of him. Keith used all his strength to pull out the helmet, noticing a metal band around the man’s head, on his brown hair, as if it was glued there. The black paladin used his mom’s blade, putting it against his temple.

“K-Kill me, Keith…” he mumbled, surprising Keith.

His eyes swimmed in tears. He tried to cut the band, but it didn’t work. He desperately used his bayard to try again, his hands trembling as well as his body. Keith knew Lance was near, and that helped him continue trying without giving up. He succeeded and broke the metal strap, hugging the man in relief without even thinking he could try to kill him.

“I missed you so much, so much…” his unwanted tears rolled down his face as he hid his face on his shoulder.

Hesitantly, the man arms hugged him back. Keith could feel something warming his shoulder, even if he didn’t make a sound. The black paladin grabbed his shoulder and distanced him from the man, looking at his now hazel eyes, still wet with tears. A feeble smile traced his face and his quivering breath made Keith’s heart ache.

“You’re an adult now… I’m so proud of you.”

“We’re going back home, I swear.” he whispered, a lump on his throat.

“I’m broken. No one should see me like that.” the man expression turned into one of sadness.

“He’s still waiting for you.”

“Even now?” he covered his mouth, shocked. Keith nodded.

New tears started flowing; the man seemed afraid to get his hopes up after spending years thinking everything was lost to him. He looked from Keith to Lance and back, as if he was waiting for some sign it was a lie or a delusion, a trick played on his weak head which was being controlled for years. A sign that he finally got crazy.

Keith smiled to Lance, as if reassuring him everything was fine, and the soft expression on his face made the man trust this older version of his boy - his son, the love he felt for him and their family rising inside of him. He was cold for so long; this feeling warmed him inside. The black paladin stood up and offered his hand to the fallen man.

“Let’s go back home, Adam.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! It was hard to write the fight scene, I'm not used to this vocabulary so I did a little bit of research to learn about it. Also, I'm kinda fragile right now because today was a harsh day for me, seeing my relatives vote on a president candidate who preaches against everything that I am; He earned 47% of the votes, and my state was the one who voted the most on him. I'm honestly sad and afraid. The point is, this chapter wasn't so good as the others, even if it was pleasant to write about adult klance dynamics, so I apologise for that.  
> Sorry to let you guys with a cliffhanger, I do intend to explore more about their adult life and Adam's rescue on the next days, so keep reading it to know more about what I'm plannig (even if I don't know if I can write it well lol). Please point out my mistakes if you see some, I'll fix it right away.  
> Thanks for reading, see you soon!  
> ~Lee


	8. Day 8: The way back home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if I mentioned it on the previous chapter, but if you're reading this for the first time, I'm kinda following a sequence of chapters, because I find it easier to find inspiration if I follow the order rather than creating a different timeline for them all. So this timeline starts in the chapter "15 years later"(keithtober day 4), though I think it can be read separately.  
> Hope you enjoy it!

**Day 8 (space and stars): The way back home**

By the moment they had entered theirs ship, Lance’s scowl seemed like a permanent facial feature. Keith was carrying Adam inside, as he had a difficulty to walk after he was freed from whatever was controllying him. The man looked exhausted; his face had aged up and his forehead had age marks, probably from all the pain he’d been through in those fifteen years he was under control. His hair was starting to get white and his neck had burnt marks. Seeing it worried Keith, because they seemed recent.

Kosmo raised his head and looked at them but didn’t move from his place. He had gotten hurt by some villagers; they went around asking about galra activity and the natives got afraid of the big wolf. Lance patted his head and sighed, before helping Keith to put Adam on a chair and put the seatbelt on him. Adam closed his eyes against his will, fast asleep.

Keith had just fasten his own seatbelt when Lance finally exploded.

“I can’t believe you!” he punched the control panel, making the wolf jump and look around. Adam was still out like a light.

“I understand you’re angry, Lance, but I couldn’t let him there…” he said, fixing his hair and then putting the rubber band on it again.

“You almost died twice today, for Pete’s sake! I thought I would get a heart attack seeing that. It’s a kids mistake!” he was so angry his veins started pulsing on his temples and his olive face started getting red.

“Listen Lance, you too broke your formation and almost got killed. Let’s not mention our mistakes.”

“I almost got killed by the guy you claim it’s someone who clearly died more than a decade ago. Why did you bring him here? To finish his job?” he cringed loudly.

“It’s him, I feel it.”

“I don’t want to pass through the same thing we did with clone Shiro. And, talking about him, what will you do if this is an ambush? Shiro has just recovered, we can’t…”

“He hasn’t, alright?!!” Keith finally snapped “I know him, and he hasn’t gotten over it.” he passed his fingers through his hair then hid his face on his hands.

They went silent for a long time, trying to deflate their anger. By now, they knew it would be fruitless to keep feeding their negative feelings towards each other and it always led to one trying to hurt the other unconsciously. As they looked at the other, their eyes met and the mute comprehension was there. Lance looked concerned and all he wanted was to promise his husband wouldn’t get hurt on his watch; however, he couldn’t restrict him from deciding things on his own life. His only responsibility was to accompany him whatever was his decision while trying to accomplish his goal of never letting his husband get hurt.

“Let’s go already, it’s dangerous to stay in here now that our cover was blown up.” Keith said.

They departed as fast as they could, encountering no further obstacles. Keith was suspicious that someone actually set a trap for them; one of the villagers. They were all acting so different from the usual glad behavior towards the paladins of voltron that he thought it was weird. Still, he thought that was just the way they acted as in a social conduct. He didn‘t painstakingly thought about this and compromised their mission. The galra base, which was supposed to be empty, was being guarded, as if someone warned them. Lance could’ve been hurt and it would be his fault for not noticing the alien people’s odd actions.

After they’ve reached stability on space and activated the autopilot, he heard Lance unfastening his belt and walking to him. He sat on Keith’s lap, putting his arm on his husband shoulders. Keith looked at his face, only to lock their gazes together in the silent communication they perfected over the years.

“I love you”, “I’m sorry”, “I’m worried”. These feelings flowed both ways. The black paladin caressed his husband’s face, and he leaned his head on Keith’s hand, closing his eyes.

“You’re right, I was wrong.” Keith started.

“I was wrong. You’re right.” he smirked, his eyes still closed. That trace of humor made him chuckle. “Sorry, _cariño_ , I don’t want you to repeat what happened with the clone Shiro. I’d hate to see you hurt.”

“I understand it. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, I’m just going on with a gut feeling.” he put his head to Lance’s chest, listening his heartbeat; he wrapped his arms around his husband’s waist, holding him tight.

“I’ll be with you, always. Through thick and thin, remember?” Lance kissed the top of his head and they spent some time looking at the stars, simply feeling like they were the last people on the universe and that they got stuck with the best person they could choose.

“Oww, my legs are numb. You’re heavy!” Keith complained, trying to find a better position to accommodate Lance’s weight without hurting his legs.

“That’s pure muscle, babe.”

Keith rolled his eyes. Lance laughed and kissed the nape of his neck; Keith felt ticklish and a silly smile appeared on his face. Despite that, he felt glad when his husband actually got up, breathing dramatically desperate.

 

Adam woke up by the time they were landing. The other paladins was already under alert since they’ve aborted the mission after only a month, so they knew something was wrong. Keith wasn’t brave enough to talk to Shiro about Adam through the communicator. Even if Lance guaranteed it would be alright, he couldn’t be sure and it was killing him to not know what to expect.

“Let’s go, Adam.” Keith passed the man’s arm around his shoulder and helped carrying him outside, while Lance was unsuccessfully trying to drag Kosmo out. “Don’t try anything funny.”

The older man glared at him as if asking “how would I, now?” and a smile rose up on Keith’s lip. He was still the sarcastic man he once knew; knowing this was some sort of relief.

“Keith, Lance, are you—” the first person to greet them was Shiro, as they feared. He saw his brother coming out of the ship holding his ex, his hand covered his mouth and his face went pale and green at the same time. He never knew Shiro could make that sort of expression.

“Takashi—” Adam looked apprehensive, sad and hopeful all at once, but he hadn’t the strength on his body to reach the man he thought that he would never see again. His hair was pure white, he had a scar across his nose and a missing arm, but it was him. The only person he loved in his whole life, the only one he made plans to marry and build a family with. His head hurt.

“Who are you?” he asked, coldly, breaking all his expectation. “Adam is dead, so who are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! I think I've let some gaps open, so I'll figure out a way of closing it.  
> My head is kind of messed right now because of the sadness I'm feeling since yesterday. All of my POC and LGBT+ friends are feeling the same way, and I'm praying that the outcome of this political situation is not what I fear the most.  
> Anyway, I must have made a lot of mistakes while writing in, so I apologise to you guys if you dislike it. Writing about Klance is the only thing that made me happy today, so my hope is that you guys like it as much as I did, and that you get the feelings I'll was unsuccessfully trying to convey. And my bad about other cliffhanger lol  
> See you soon  
> ~Lee


	9. Day 9: A cold and broken hallelujah

**Day 9 (racing with Shiro): A cold and broken Hallelujah**

 

“Shiro it’s not time for that! He needs to go to the cryo-pod right away!” interrupted Lance.

He was right. The marks on his neck seemed to hurt and Keith could not figure out how he had survived and wasn’t expressing any pain, despite not being able to walk. He guessed his body, covered by the black armor, was worse than he let it show. His hazel eyes were now staring at the floor, as if the last of his hopes had faded. Shiro looked at him as if he had grown a second head. Lance pulled him by the arm so Keith could pass through.

The other paladins looked confused; Allura was the one who moved first, helping Keith to carry Adam to the car she drove —  she got used to Earth faster than they guessed she would — and they accommodated him the best they could. Keith looked behind him; Shiro was being softly held by Lance and Hunk was carrying Kosmo to his pickup since he was still hurt. The others were looking at the scene without understanding it.

After organizing themselves in the two cars, they departed. Shiro was still in shock and they decided to put him with Hunk, who was the best in handling emotional situation, even if an awkward and closed person like Shiro. Adam ended up losing his conscious again, supposedly from the pain he was feeling.

“Oh, god!” Keith said when Allura took a turn and his head hit the window of the car. She was a good driver, if you were running away from the police, or if you needed an ambulance driver.

It made them arrive earlier than the over careful Hunk.

They carried Adam, who didn’t open his eyes again, inside the base. His breath was slow and weak, and Keith’s heart was thumping loudly on his chest. They only stopped their track to put the man on the cryo-pod inside the Garrison HQ. Lance and him were breathing hard by the time Shiro stormed in the room like a madman. He looked like he would hit someone anytime soon and the other paladins took a step back, scared to see him in a way they never did.

“Why did you bring him here?! He’s a menace!” he walked towards Keith, pointing his finger to his face.

Lance put himself between the two of them instinctively and challenged Shiro with his eyes. He truly liked the ex-paladin, nonetheless, his husband came first on his priorities. Keith hand touched his shoulder, trying to appease the situation, and the red paladin relaxed under his touch.

“Shiro, I know you’re confused right now. I am too. But he is Adam, I’m sure.” he spoke to his brother.

“No, Keith, you don’t understand,  he…” he pulled his white hair angrily.

“Shiro, he is now on the cryo-pod, we can make sure he isn’t harmful.” Allura suggested, touching Shiro’s shoulder. He brushed her off and she looked hurt.

“You’re not thinking straight.” Keith touched his brother’s shoulder, and this time he didn’t reacted. He looked older and tired. “Let walk outside a little bit.”

Hunk looked guilty, as if it was his fault for not helping. Keith mumbled an “it’s okay” as they passed through him. Pidge was already scanning Adam’s body to see how much harm he’d been through and how to fix it; Lance went to help her. Allura and Hunk started whispering to each other.

“Keith, I can’t… Not again…” he finally said while they walked outside. “I’m going mad—”

“Hey, remember when we were younger and you took me to run everyday, and we’d compete against each other if I was upset?” Keith tried to change the topic, and it worked, because he made Shiro truly look at him for the first time after he saw Adam.

“I do. What about it?” he looked curious, in his eyes the pain still lingered.

“Let’s do it. You always clear your head as you’re moving.”

Without waiting for his answer he started warming up. Shiro stood still for a long while, then started stretching as well. Mentally, Keith was giving himself a high five.

They started running, fast in the beginning and later reaching a constant pace. People of every patent of the Garrison stopped what they were doing to greet them as they walked by. Everyone admired the paladins of voltron, all those years working for the common good and galaxy’s safety made their reputation; the hero position didn’t sit well with Keith, however, it was one of the perks of doing his job.

He avoided talking to his brother, expecting he would do take the initiative once he was ready. They jogged for an hour or so; they were finally reaching the start line. Keith sped up without warning, and soon Shiro surpassed him, a confident grin on his face. They finally stopped on the place they’ve started, both breathing hard and sweating. Shiro looked at Keith and the clouds in his eyes dissipated a little. Keith bought two bottles of water from a vending machine and found his brother sitting on a bench near the gates of the Garrison.

“Is it really him?” Shiro said before drinking half of the bottle content.

“Look, if it wasn’t, why would he be there? The galra would already have used him against us if they knew him.” pondered Keith.

“The situation of that planet was a whole ambush, though.” evaluated Shiro “ You guys could’ve died.”

“You’re right. But Adam, he… He was being controlled by something. It’s a mystery for me how he ended up in a planet so far in the galaxy.” Keith sighed, taking his band off his hair and combing it with his fingers. “His neck was burnt as if something recent happened, despite the decade that went by after galra invasion.”

“It’s weird, indeed.” he scratched his 5 o’clock shadow, thoughtful.

Pidge went out, looking around. When she found them, she waved and called them back.

“I’ve got some results. You’ll want to see it.” they reached the infirmary and the others were surrounding the cryo-pod, expecting their arrival. Pidge started pressing some buttons “30% of his body had third degree burn, 10% had second and first degree burn.” she looked surprised “I sincerely don’t know how he was alive for fifteen years with those.”

Shiro’s face looked worried and pained. Hunk was analysing something in the cryo-pod alongside Coran. Apparently they were going to try to extract Adam’s memories and they would know the truth.

“We can talk to his hologram when we’re done.” Allura said.

“And now we wait.” Hunk said.

“Now we wait.” agreed Keith, giving Lance a side glance.

They weren’t going home anytime soon.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's today chapter!  
> I don't know if I was able to convey their feelings properly, even more Shiro's... I'm trying to recover and fight back the feelings I'm having, so I don't get so overwhelmed and stop giving my 110% on keithtober. Anyway, I really hope you've liked this one too. Tomorrow I'll be back with a little Klance and hopefully with a less cliffhanger chapter lol  
> Also, if you notice any grammar or orthography mistake, please comment so I can fix it!  
> Love you guys, sincerely  
> ~Lee


	10. Day 10: Revenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title can be misleading, but rest assured that it's on the fluffy side~

**Day 10 (training with Lance): Revenge**

 

Keith entered the dorm room stomping and headed straight to the bathroom, throwing his red uniform top on the bed. Lance, who was reading a magazine, was now flabbergasted at his husband tempestuous steps and the door slamming; he laid beside the recovering wolf curled around him. He raised his head in alert. It was as if Keith hadn’t even seen Lance in there. He sighed and started heading to the bathroom, leaving the wolf take over the bed. He went back to sleep.

With his head under the shower, Keith felt his eyes hurt and tried to avoid crying. His long hair was covering his face as he lowered his head and supported himself holding the wall. He was so immersed on the turmoil of feelings inside his mind that he only notice someone was there as Lance entered the narrow shower with him and put his head to his shoulder, closing the water valve and holding him. He said nothing, and Keith warped his arms around Lance, hiding his face on the crook of his neck. Lance kissed his nape and just stood there, passing his finger through his husband’s wet hair.

“I’m a terrible person.” Keith finally said, his voice cracking.

“Shh…” Lance kissed his lips slowly, entering his mouth with his tongue and exploring his husband as if they had the whole day to do it — which they kinda did, because they were still in suspension about Adam’s situation. When he withdrew, he looked at Keith, tenderness all over his face. “ _Cariño_ , you could never be terrible, believe me.” he smiled at him, but it faded as Keith lowered his head.

“I’m the one who made Shiro suffer like that.” he let a single sob and bit his lips “What if it’s not really Adam…”

“Babe, we’ll have to wait and see. Nothing came out yet?” Lance automatically kept his voice low in an attempt to make Keith relax. He didn’t understand why he was so agitated, but he had a impression that soon enough he would know.

“No, the memories are fragmented. It’s been two days, Lance.” he pulled his hair, which made Lance hold his hands and open finger by finger until he released it.

“Don’t hurt yourself, please.” he kissed Keith’s hair and held him even tighter.

“Shiro hasn’t slept for more than 48 hours, and it’s my… fault…” his sobs increased and he finally allowed himself to cry, even though he hated it. They stood like that for a while, Lance letting him extravasate those feelings.

“No, it isn’t and you know it.” once he calmed down, Lance cupped his husband’s cheek, giving him a light peck on his lips, his cheeks, his eyebrows, his forehead. Each kiss made Keith start to relax, leaning on Lance until he was supporting his body. “If you left Adam in that planet, wouldn’t you feel like you were doing the wrong thing?”

“Yeah.” he sniffed.

“Then you did the right thing. _Cariño_ , your heart is on the right place, always. Shiro will have us by his side the moment he’s ready to let us in.” Lance smiled again, and this time Keith answered with a trembly one, his face and nose bright red. “You look like a hot mess, babe.”

Keith pinched him and he laughed at his gorgeous husband. Then Lance started washing their bodies, enjoying their couple moment and the post-storm feeling. He was just glad that his paladin were feeling a little better.

  


After three days of tense expectation, Adam’s scattered memories were finally transferred to the capsule and his hologram was ready to be asked questions. The real Adam was almost recovered and in deep slumber inside the cryo-pod.

Shiro gasped; he was seeing his cherished ex-boyfriend's face for the first time in a decade, or the aged version of it. He looked tired and broken, different from the composed younger pilot of Garrison. The first thing he fixed his eyes on was Shiro, and a relieved smile appeared on his lips, his hazel eyes turning soft.

“Takashi, you’re really alive. Commander Holt was right…”

“Why are you not dead?” Shiro couldn’t handle that look on his eyes. Even after all those years, it still shook him.

“I don’t know.” Adam answered, feeling hurt. “I remember my ship hitting the alien ship and exploding and the next thing I saw was an alien planet. Some humans were in there as well.”

“What purpose they had in gathering humans?” Keith asked, redirecting Adam’s attention to him.

His eyes smiled once again. This was an more sincere version of the man they once knew, that’s for sure. But it didn’t feel fake.

“They were searching some human pilots for a robot called Voltron.” he looked at the other paladins, seeing if the name rung a bell. “They said that since the paladins were human, they could try using other humans to bond with the robots. Which I found very fictional and weird. But then again, I was in an alien planet being held hostage by giant purple furry creatures, so nothing feels weird anymore.” he shrugged his shoulder, sarcastically.

“ _T_ _hat’s Adam for you._ ” thought Keith.

“How were you able to survive the injuries?” asked Lance.

“You’re— McClain?” Adam blinked a few times and Lance was surprised his instructor still remembered him. The man cleaned his throat after a while. “You grew well, I see… Anyway, my speculation is that the clothing I’m currently wearing is what made me survive all this time without getting an infection or feeling the pain. My guess is that the mind control also helped numb the pain. I’m impressed myself.”

Shiro couldn’t hold back his emotions.

“And how do I know you’re really Adam?”

“I have no answer for that, Takashi. If you can’t be sure for yourself that I’m the man you’ve spent years with, than I have no business with you as well.” answered him, angrily. Not only he was doubting him, Shiro also had hurt him two times in a row and also a decade ago, by deciding that a mission was more important than his health.

“ _His arm_ …” Adam took a look at his hurt arm, only to be surprised by some sort of floating arm. It looked so old fashioned, something the Teen Titans creators would use on Cyborg. He almost snorted, but the will to do so on itself got him by surprise. He no longer felt like a robot willing to answer someone else’s command.

“What are you smiling at?” Shiro asked, suspiciously.

“Nothing at all. You just seem well…” he looked at the bags under his ex eyes “I mean, except from your panda eyes. You should take care of yourself... This beard looks hideous.” he rolled his eyes.

All of the paladins laughed, some in relief, others because they recognized Adam was still the same, deep inside. Shiro had that look on his face that said they were about to quarrel again. Some habits never die… Keith rolled his eyes.

Lance hugged him from behind and kissed his cheek. He could feel his husband’s smile pressed against his face and answered him with one of his. His hand was pulled and they sneaked out of the room, as well as the others. They were giving Shiro and Adam some time.

  


 

The love birds ended up in a training room. Keith wasn’t expect that his relief would give place to feeling ecstatic. His smile grew when he saw his beloved husband’s happy face.

“Told ya it would be alright, _cariño_.” they were still holding hands, fingers intertwined.

“You’re always right, hon.” Keith laughed.

“Was it irony? It wasn’t, right?” asked him, genuinely confused.

Keith kissed him to avoid answering.

“I suddenly feel pumped up! Let’s train?” he pulled his knife out of his boot and Lance sighed.

“We could cuddle and watch a movie but nooo, my husband wants to beat me to a pulp.” he whined while picking his bayard.

“Who said I will?”

“You’re digging for compliments? The best blade fighter is you, blah blah blah.”

“Jerk.” Keith snorted, entering battle position.

Not so willingly, Lance also put himself in alert and waited. The black paladin was always the first one to attack. The first strike came; he tried to find an opening on Lance’s defense by attacking his leg with the knife. The red paladin stopped him with the tip of his bayard then pushed him back with solely the strength of his dominant arm. Lance got distracetd for a second and Keith was no longer in there. He felt his presence behind him and stopped him again, spinning around to block his attack; his forehead was sweating due to the force he was using against his husband’s knife.

Their blades clashed, neither of them backing off or surrendering. They were already panting and sweating, and the devilish smile that always appeared on Keith’s face during fighta was now there, making Lance want to melt into a puddle on his feet.

Keith found an opening and striked for the last time and knocked Lance down. In a split of second, he was holding his blade against his husband’s neck, locking him down with legs on each side of his waist.

“I lost, what a surprise.” he said in a monotone voice. Keith laughed at him, putting his knife back to place and kissing Lance on his cheek.

Lance caged the black paladin between his arms and spun around, trapping him underneath his body.

“Revenge.” he smirked, kissing him deeply.

Keith’s legs rounded Lance’s waist and his hand went to his spouse’s shaved hair, the other hand entered underneath his tank top, exploring his warm skin with his cold finger. He scratched his scalp and Lance moaned on his mouth. The red paladin bit Keith’s lower lip and merged his mouth into his again, their bodies so glued together not a strand of hair would pass in between. They were breathing heavily as they separated their lips; both gasping for air. Keith felt aroused, noticing how dilated were Lance’s pupils. He restarted the kiss passionately…

“Hm, guys… Can we enter now?” Hunk asked, hiding behind his hands, embarrassed.

“Get a room!” Pidge entered the training room, annoyed. Hunk tried to stop her, but she was already near them, glaring with menace all over her eyes.

When they looked to the door, Allura and Shiro were also there, each one of a unique disconcerted face.

“Can we kill them?” Keith mumbled angrily.

“That would require raising up and I don’t know if I can do that.”

“Well, mine is dead for the next 10 years.”

They laughed at the awkward situation. Sometimes family could be annoying.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand that was it *running to att the warnings*  
> I was kinda shy *hides* about writing a kiss scene, because I always think about how to describe it properly but I never seem to do it right... But it ended pleasantly! I loved it. And poor them because something always happen to interrupt them lol  
> I'm more cheerful today, thank God (no one asked lol) and so I think I did my best on this chapter, more than I've being doing lately.  
> Thanks for reading, see ya soon!  
> ~Lee


	11. Day 11: Family Reunion

**Day 11 (baking with Hunk): Family Reunion**

 

Keith was leaving his bedroom almost against his will, since all he wanted to do was to keep sleeping while being hugged by his husband. However, his stomach disagreed with him, making him wake up earlier than usual to eat his breakfast, before the noise from his belly scared someone. He looked back and saw Kosmo snuggling Lance from the place Keith usually slept. He was feeling envious of a space wolf.

“ _When did I become so needy?_ ”

As he was heading to the kitchen the higher ranks shared at the Garrison, he noticed Hunk passing by him, deep in thought and talking to himself. He was so immersed in whatever he was planning that hadn’t even noticed Keith’s presence. He cleared his throat once, twice, and Hunk didn’t look at him.

“Hunk!” he called him, making the yellow paladin stop his frantic steps and finally turn his way, noticing he was there for the first time.

“Good morning, Keith. Do you need me for something?” he seemed a little bit concerned.

“No, in fact I was wondering why are you so distracted first thing in the morning.”

Hunk smiled sheepishly.

“You know, since Adam was just released from the cryo-pod I thought I could make a complete meal for him as a welcome.” he frowned “And also feed Shiro, who hasn’t been eating well for days now. And there’s Kosmo that’s still recovering from his injuries…” he started rambling while counting his tasks on his fingers. It made Keith smile.

“Hunk, you’re the greatest person, do you know that?” he touched the paladin’s shoulder.

Among them all, Hunk was the most thoughtful and caring person. He always put the others before him, as well as being the one who was sincere to his feeling integrally. Some could mistake him by calling him a coward for expressing fear, but Keith disagreed. Only the most mature people admitted their flaws and still faced the fear without retreating; nowadays he was recognized for being the bravest soldier and an excellent pilot, differently from 15 years ago; he didn’t get that much recognition back then. Not to mention he was as intelligent as Pigde, if not more. To be that much of an amazing person inside and outside made Keith proud of piloting voltron with him.

“No, I’m not…” he blushed a little, feeling flattered as he often did if he received a compliment from anyone; he then coughed and changed the subject. “I hate to cut you off, but I have lots of food to make.”

“Well then, I’m going to help. I was heading there anyway.” they started walking side by side.

“Keith, not meaning to offend you or anything, but you’re a denial with cooking.” he offered an awkward smile to his leader and he laughed.

“I know, but there must be something I can do, right?”

“Oh, I’m actually relieved.” Hunk put his hand on his chest and sighed. “Of course there is! It’ll make my life easier, actually.”

The moment they entered the kitchen, the first thing Hunk did was set the cooking mood by putting on a diva playlist. They started cutting the ingredients to make a healthy frittata, mixing others to make pancakes. Keith was surprised he didn’t throw anything on the floor or cut his fingers. While he was still mixing the pancakes ingredients, Hunk was taking the dogs biscuits from the oven. They were bone shaped and smelled so good that Keith’s stomach decided it was time to remember he was hungry. Since Hunk kept talking to him, he didn’t have time to turn into the hangry version of himself.

Hunk laughed at his active stomach and offered him a glass with milk.

“You’ll have to wait a little more. I’ll make you something, since you’re helping me.”

A couple of hours passed and they ended up deciding to make breakfast for all of the paladins. Keith was sitting on the table licking his fingers after finally eating when Shiro entered the kitchen looking around with a shy smile. He greeted both of them and put a dog biscuit on his mouth before they could warn him.

“Hm… It tastes different from your usual cooking, Hunk.” he looked at Hunk, uncertain.

“That’s because....” Keith laughed loud, holding his belly “That’s Kosmo’s biscuits…”

Both paladins were still laughing by the time the others appeared.

“Morning guys, why did you decided to make this much food? Is someone’s birthday or something?” Lance headed to Keith, kissing his cheek and sitting on a chair next to him, his hand resting on his husband’s tight.

“We were thinking of receiving Adam… He’s not here, though?” Hunk looked at Shiro, who almost choked with the giant amount of food he had put on his mouth. He gulped down everything in a hurry, food went the wrong way and he started coughing. Allura slapped his back twice, so strongly they all felt sorry for the poor man’s lungs.

“Adam is still sleeping, I’m going to give him his share.” he put much of everything on the table and left the room, not before muttering “Thanks, guys.”

Everyone shared a confused look, and returned to wolf down their breakfast. As they got distracted, not only Kosmo ate all of his biscuits, but also half of Pidge’s eggs. They bursted out laughing, and Keith could swear Hunk’s eyes were happier than he had seen in a long time. Maybe because nowadays everyone was so busy with their own tasks and lives they no longer had the time to gather like this in the mornings, as they used to do when they were young people saving the universe from Zarkon.

Keith felt happy too, as he only felt around his noisy family. He gave Lance a surprise kiss as he was feeling exultant, and the other booed; he laughed on his husband’s mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda late, but hope you enjoyed! I love Hunk so much, I feel he's so underrated and deserved to be praised because he's the sweetest, the most caring and loving person.  
> Anyway! I'll keep going with this plot for a while, hope I can put more adashi moments on it, since today I didn't directly put it, but I guess you guys noticed they kind of made up, I guess?  
> So... See you tomorrow? (earlier, I hope, since it's a holiday in my country)  
> ~Lee


	12. Day 12: Mind Control

**Day 12 (discoveries with Pidge): Mind Control**

 

“Are you sure it had no stone of some sort attached to it?” Pidge asked for the umpteenth time.

“No…” Keith answered.

They’ve spent the whole afternoon trying to figure out the source of power for the simple metal band Adam had on his head when Keith found him, but nothing was coming out of it. Hunk and Pidge had been passing it between them to take a closer look and concluding absolutely nothing. Keith just wanted to end that up so he, Lance and Kosmo would be able to go home after spending more than a week inside the Garrison. However, the top priority was discovering something about the galra and Adam’s past; as a soldier, he had to comply.

“Analysing it, it seems like a normal lithium band, perhaps. It’s some sort of material that I don’t recognize as being from earth.” she smelled it “Doesn’t smell burnt” she looked confused.

“I don’t understand your point.” Keith said sincerely, sighing.

“We were trying to figure out what kind of energy make this band work.” Hunk explained, analysing a list of materials available on his computer database. “No success, though.”

“ _Boooring…_ ” he thought. Keith wanted something he could work with, some real action and kicking ass, especially if it was Lotor’s. He would never forgive him for what he’d done to everyone.

“This band was merely a conductor to the electromagnetism used to brainwash us.” said Adam, entering the room casually. He looked like a new person without the circles under his eyes and the empty expression he had when he arrived. He was using the black Garrison uniform that fit him as well as it would fit its owner, Shiro, and his exposed hands both had burning scars all over them. He was without his glasses, resisting the will to squint his eyes to see something.

“Our helmets had the magnets, and depending of the frequency of the waves it hurted.” he thoughtfully held his chin with his hand and stood like this for a while “Many human perished due to the insanity caused by the magnet.”

“And you didn’t?” Pidge asked, suspiciously.

“What can I say, I’ve been crazy long before becoming a guinea pig.” he smirked and Keith snickered.

“But it doesn’t explain the red eyes…” Keith suddenly remembered and got serious.

“There was some sort of witches, I guess, in there. They did that to unsubordinated man on which the band alone couldn’t work.”

“The druids?” Pidge jumped from her seat. “Haggar is involved with it?”

“There was no Haggar person in there, only a guy with a flowy long hair…” he looked as if he was trying hard to remember the name.

“Lotor.”

“I guess it was that name. My head is messed.” he scowled, taking his hand off his forehead, another scar displayed in there.

“They were in the planet you were in?” Hunk asked.

“No, that planet was just a source of raw material. Lotor was building something using that.”

“And what was he creating?” Pidge almost fell off her seat because she was practically bouncing on it.

“I don’t remember.” he replied in a weak voice, holding his temples and getting pale.

“Pidge, enough.” said their leader. “Adam, do you need to sit down?” he went to him, only to receive the coldest glare coming from the older man.

“I don’t need your pity, Keith, not anyone else’s.”

Shiro, who had just entered the room, looked sad as he approached the group. Keith could imagine they got into a fight because Adam was hard headed enough to not admit he was going to need more time to get over what happened. What Shiro wasn’t going to share with everyone was that Adam not only were having difficulties to sleep, he as well was showing symptoms of PTSD since he woke up. There was nothing he could do because the stubborn soldier refused to see a doctor. He hated to look weak in front of anyone.

“Keith, it’s the clue we were expecting for a while now, it could change the game!” complained Pidge in a small voice, thinking about what would be best not only for the team but the universe.

“Fine, only one more question if Adam is okay with that.”

“I am.” he said harshly.

“How or where was the planet you were in before the one where you met Keith?” Pidge asked, carefully this time.

He started describing what he remembered, and Pidge started typing. She opened a giant map, showing all the mapped planets, galaxies and constellations. It was created by her fifteen years ago to store information of all the planets of the coalition and the enemy territory in a secret database shared among them all and easily actualized by anyone who had permission to make new entries. The database counted with photos, information on the soil and temperature, atmospheric conditions, native people or their absence, culture, natural phenomenon and if it was the case, state of the planet after galra invasion. It was the most complete map in the galaxy, and she was still perfecting it.

She found the exactly planet he was talking about, earlier visited by the Blades and classified as inhabited and free from galra colonization. If what Adam was saying was true, it meant the galra were hiding better than they expected. The worst scenario was: he could be lying. She didn’t want to raise the hypothesis because the man looked fragmented already. The only solution would be to scramble his memories again, but it was inhuman to do so. She decided to trust him on that, but she was going to put extra effort to assure they succeeded this mission without any losses, or they would be on her.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was a short chapter, because I'm so sleepy ~  
> Anyway, I hope I've gived a plausible explanation for what happened to Adam. I don't know if I'll finish the 15 years later arc tomorrow or if I'll go on with a "find-Lotor-defeat-galra" mission or if I'll let an open end and write about it later, I'm seriously thinking about that with my extremely clouded mind (since I'm really sleepy lol).  
> Also, hope Adam is able to accept he needs help and give himself the chance to recover. I love this maaaaaaan.  
> So, see you tomorrow!!  
> ~Lee


	13. Day 13: Regrets

**Day 13 (late night talk with Allura): Regrets**

 

It was a little after midnight when Keith stomach decided he wasn’t going to try to sleep anymore — he wasn’t succeeding anyway. He wasn’t so young anymore to use growing up as an excuse for being starving all the time, to the point of waking Lance up with the rumbling. He chuckled and then was fast asleep again. Keith headed to the kitchen, his soul almost leaving his body in the moment he found Allura in the dark room, munching something.

“Oh my— Allura!!” his hand went to his heart, and he breathed harshly, relieved.

“Keith?” she was also surprised to see him there.

He turned on the lights, only to find half of the fridge gone and the empty packages on the counter. He looked at her; she was staring intensely the ice cream she had in front of her. Keith noticed something was wrong with her, and sat next to her.

“Do you mind me being here? If you want, I can g—”

“No, you don’t need to leave because of me.” she started curling her shoulder length hair with her finger, pondering if she should burden Keith with her feelings. They were close friends, he was like a brother to her; nonetheless, she didn’t want to put more weight on his mind on the day before their mission to the planet Adam said that Lotor was.

She had no reminiscent feelings for Lotor whatsoever; however, the guilt she felt for falling for his trick still haunted her even now, and the perspective of seeing him after all those years - of facing the mistakes which almost cost the paladins lives as well as most of the earthling population - was desolating. For a long time, she couldn’t look at the other paladins, knowing her irresponsibility had brought sorrow to their lives; she almost failed to fix her misdeeds and made them experience the same feeling she had posterior to finding out she couldn’t save Altea, her people were dead and her planet destroyed. Allura would carry this for the rest of her life.

“Hm… I know I’m not that good in dealing with people like Lance is, but if you want to, I’m here for you.” although he was feeling awkward, as a leader and a friend, he was open to hear her or any member of his family. Now he understood how embarrassing it was to talk about feelings and gave Shiro credits for taking it bravely every time. “If want, I can call Lance as well.”

“I think I should keep this to myself...” she smiled sadly.

“Do you remember we went on that mission that almost got everyone[ killed*](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16159973/chapters/37783367)?” Keith changed the subject while he tried to find something edible on the fridge and giving up. He grabbed some noodles on a cabinet. He put the water to boil and turned to face Allura “I felt like such a failure back than… It’s a feeling I remember ‘till the present day.”

“Why are you telling me that?” she asked, suspicious, wondering if he found out the truth hidden behind her nonchalant façade.

“Sorry, did it bother you?” he seemed ashamed “It’s.. This huge mission makes me uncomfortable, even if we’ve passed through this countless times already. I remember that one mistake and it passes on loop on my head to the point I can’t sleep.” his voice was getting smaller and he sighed, looking at the kettle, distracted.

Allura looked at his profile. His beard was growing, his eyes had dark shadows underneath them and he seemed to be lost in thought.

“I wonder if bad memories will follow us forever.” mumbled Allura “Nowadays, I have difficulty in remembering what my mom looked like, or how my father voice sounded back when I was a kid. In spite of that, I always remember the pain and betrayal I felt as if it was the first time. I feel so stupid…” she hid her face on her hands.

“Allura, it happens to everyone, human or not.” Keith allowed her to have her privacy as he put the water on the noodles and started eating the boiling hot thing.

“I have thousands of people’s deaths on me, I can’t forgive myself for that even if I try.” the first tears started falling on her hands, surprising her. She promised she would never cry for this again, since the perpetrator shouldn’t take the place of the victims. It hurted so much to be responsible of such a huge weight she couldn’t bear to keep it at the risk of choking on her own mistakes.

“On us.” Keith answered, deadly serious, turning to face her. “The paladins trusted him and as a team we take the blame.”

“You don’t understand, Keith! I was the one to get to Oriande and—”

“Allura, it wasn’t your fault.” his voice turned intransigent. “It was Sendak’s fault, Haggar’s fault.” he grabbed her shoulders, gently. “No one ever blamed you for this, the thought haven’t even crossed our minds, I swear it, my friend.”

Her tears increased, and she bit her lips to try to stop herself from sobbing.

“Keith, I can’t accept this.”

They hugged while she was still sitting on the chair, and she hid her head on Keith’s belly, her arms around his waist. Since no one was seeing, she allowed herself to sob like a child, like she used to do as a child, hugging her family and crying with abandon. Keith, as well as the others, was her family; she allowed herself to seek comfort on them, to let go of what she refrained for years. Keith awkwardly patted her head, feeling sad he had no words to offer nor a more effective way of making her feel better. They stayed like that for more than ten minutes. It hurted him to see her suffering that much.

“You are human… Well, not human, since you’re altean but—”

“ _Good one, Keith_ …” he thought, bitterly.

“What I mean it, since we’re not perfect, we all make mistakes. I mean, do you resent me for leaving the Paladins and going to the BOM?” she shook her head, spreading more tears on his T-shirt. “So believe me on this, I beg you.” he was starting to get desperate.

“I don’t know if I can.” she said in a clearer voice.

“ _Where is Lance when I need him?_ — _Nevermind, I always need him_.”

“Then I-I order you as the leader that you have to overcome it so you don’t compromise our mission.”

“ _Great, Keith, you’re an insensitive family member now_.”

Surprisingly, she chuckled and raised her head to face him.

“You seem like someone stepped on your tail.” her eyes were swollen and red.

“Thanks, sis, and you have snot all over your nose and mouth _and_ my shirt.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Why are you suddenly feeling better?” he was at a loss of words, as he did nothing to help her.

“I’d die if you tried harder than that.”

“Hey!”

“I’m kidding…” she gave him a weak trace of a smile. “I guess giving myself the chance to cry made me feel better. And your hug helped. Thanks, bro.” she tried to clean his white T-shirt, giving up midway.

“If you want to keep using it as a tissue, go ahead.” he smirked.

“Eww! I’m fine without that.”

They went silent for a while, looking at each other thoughtfully. Keith didn’t know how to say good night to her and go back to his dorm to take a bath and wash the mucus on his shirt then cuddle with his husband; he didn’t want to dismiss her if she felt down. She was thinking about her disheveled face and how shameful was her behaviour, being as old as she was.

“Hm… I guess I’ll clean up this mess.” she pointed at the counter.

“Wanna help?” he asked, hesitant.

“No, you’re free from the sentimentalism now.” she laughed, her voice sounding weird because her nose was still blocked.

“Thank God, don’t do that to me again for a few years, okay?”

He wasn’t fleeing, just smoothly leaving the kitchen with the fastest pace he could without running. At the door, he found Lance, leaning against the wall. He put his index on his lips and silently took Keith’s hand. As they were walking back to their room, Lance spoke.

“I’m so proud of you, _cariño_.” he whispered in a hoarse voice.

“Because I’ve unlocked Shiro’s awkwardness level 1?” he snorted.

“Well, that too.” he laughed “It was amazing, indeed.”

Keith hit him softly and he let out a fake pained interjection. They walked hand in hand back to their room and after disposing of the dirty T-shirt, Lance showered him with kisses to prove how proud he was of his husband and leader and family member.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I got really emotive writing this! I really love Allura and I know how guilt works on your system pretty well.  
> The guilt as well as the fear can paralize the bravest people, because they hit you deep in your core, there's no better explanation for this.  
> I particularly was feeling again the blues because I didn't know if I'm doing a good job trying to write in a foreign language. But I'm really glad I went ahead and wrote this chapter today, I feel purified by this. Also, I saw a very disturbing movie on Netflix today (called "Hold the Dark") and got, well, disturbed lol  
> Sorry for sharing too much and hope you liked this chapter that I gave my best to deliver.  
> See ya!  
> ~Lee


	14. Day 14: Dreamland

**Day 14 (garrison days): Dreamland**

 

Keith knew it was a dream. He always did.

His body felt sluggish as he unfastened the seatbelt, his forehead sweating. He looked down and found himself wearing the hideous orange uniform he used to have back in the day. Another proof it was a dream. Unfortunately, he had to play along, or he wouldn’t rest well for the night.

Apparently he was leaving a simulator after finishing the test for the fighter pilot position. He now was going to the waiting room with the rest of the applicants for the position. He leaned on a wall, watching a boy nervously pacing around the room. He must have seen the boy on the corridors before, because he seemed familiar, somehow.

“ _Ah, right, it’s him_.” that boy was the one Adam always seemed to favor over the others. Not directly; only people who knew how unapproachable and bad-tempered Adam could be understood that he was especially kind to the boy, as if he had some hidden potential as a pilot.

His name was called and he entered, drying his hands on his pants on the way. Keith had a impression he wouldn’t be able to make it, being as nervous as he appeared to be. Not much time had passed when he returned to the room, his head low. Keith never felt so bad for being right and he could be there as well if Shiro hasn’t teached him that patience yields focus. It was their family motto. He wanted to go there and talk to the boy, but this was the conscious Keith influence on his adolescent self, because young Keith didn’t care enough to go to him.

The alarm announcing the end of the test resounded on the waiting room, and they all gathered around the commander in charge of the test, each one receiving their results in front of the rest of them. Keith passed; he knew he would. And the boy, as he expected, failed. As they were leaving the room James violently bumped on his shoulder, smirking to Keith, who simply glared at him.

Keith was so glad he had good news to show his brothers that he let it slip that time. However, James got near the slender guy who failed the test and simply pushed him, causing him to fall down. Since he couldn’t get the fight he wanted with Keith, he’d appealed to the innocent passerby. The boy raised up, taller than most teenagers in there, and James seemed pleased. The boy grabbed him by his collar.

“What, are you going to hit me because boohoo you failed the test?” he mocked the other guy as if he wasn’t responsible for making him trip and fall “You didn’t have the capacity to do it in first place, so now you know for sure you’re a failure.”

A commander appeared to break them apart and Keith's desire to punch James right in his face arised inside of him. He closed his hands into fists, holding back from showing that excuse of a human being the disservice he did to humanity.

“ _For Adam and Shiro…_ ” he thought, trying to refrain his temper.

The tall guy released his arm from the commander’s grip and went away, scowling. His back was sad and lonely as he left, while James was well received by his suck up friends. The commander? He left James be, since “they’re boys with a bright future, they should as well know how to solve their own problems”. Keith hated this hypocritical behavior coming from his superiors, because it only displayed how little did they care for the cadets conduct with their colleagues. What could he expect of a guy like James if they went on a discovery mission? He would probably leave Keith to die without thinking twice or regretting it later.

His mind, however, kept pushing him to go and stop the tall guy, who seemed so broke and sad. Keith wanted to, he really did, but his feet wouldn’t move. He stood still, staring as he went far from him. His orange uniform suddenly turned into a blue one and his shoulders turned bigger, as well as his figure. He kept walking away.

“ _Lance_ ” he noticed now what the dream was making him forget. “ _Lance, Lance, Lance!_ ” he chanted in his mind, wanting to reach his husband.

For a moment, something that didn’t come out of his memory flashed through his mind. It was Lance on a washroom, hiding his face on his flexed knees, sobbing quietly. His thoughts somehow flowed to his mind and Keith’s heart hurted on his chest to see the younger version of his husband suffering.

“ _I knew I couldn’t do it. I knew it! Why did I even bother to try?_ ” Lance’s voice sounded like Keith’s own conscious voice. “ _I’m such a shame_!”

He wanted to hug the boy and assure him he was going to be a great pilot who would save the universe alongside people who believe on his potential. He couldn’t, not on memories that didn’t belong to him. He only wished his younger version had gone after him, that he could be a little more aware of other people’s feelings; however, back then he had nothing to offer Lance. Not when he only learned the true expression of love with the the red paladin. Keith was loved by Adam and Shiro, but he was still unsure if he was worth it back then.

If the present Keith could have stopped the insecurities that followed Lance on the root, on that moment he was crying alone and ashamed of himself... He'd give everything to return to that day.

This thought made him wake up. Moonlight cast a feeble light inside the bedroom. In front of him was Lance, whose face was contorted in pain as tears rolled on the corner of his closed eyes. They were laying face to face on their bed. Keith first instinct was to wipe his tears; he touched his husband’s face at the same time he opened his eyes, raw sadness displayed on them.

“Keith?” he grabbed his hand with a tight grip, as if he was scared.

“What is it, love?” his own eyes were getting wet to see his beloved suffering.

“I had a nightmare…” Lance’s voice cracked, and he sounded like a lost child.

“I know, I saw it too.” he softly pulled Lance’s hand to his mouth, kissing it multiple times.

The matching pendant with which they had a connection made them develop a mental bond with each other; nevertheless, it was the first time he got inside Lance’s dreams and experienced the same things he did. Lance came closer and Keith hugged him tight, letting him feel safe and warm on his arms. His ragged breath started slowly returning to normal, his tense body relaxed little by little under Keith’s reassuring touch. Keith kissed his forehead.

They spent a long time in silence before Keith felt the need to tell his boyfriend what was on his mind.

“You’re amazing. You know it, right?”

“I do” was Lance’s cheeky answered. Keith chuckled and pinched his nose “Thanks, _cariño_ , I needed to hear that.”

“I love you so much. Do you know you saved me?” Keith mumbled, sleepy.

Lance was surprised and blinked a few times, trying to comprehend what he had said. The talkative man was at a loss of words, a very rare event.

“Yes, you did. You teached me so much… I wouldn’t be who I am if it wasn’t for your unconditional love.” he thoughtfully sighed “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you back then.”

“ _Cariño,_ ” Lance said in a tender voice “you’re the one who always make me feel like I’m perfect. I mean, I know I am, but every god needs worshippers.” he joked, but his soft expression couldn’t trick Keith into believing his joke had any truth to it.

They kept talking to each other until they silently slipped back to the dreamland, tightly tangled with each other. If their dreams happened to intertwine again, they were sure it would be a good one. If they were together in it, it certainly would be the sweetest one they had in their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a tough one for me to write. I mean, both had it hard when they were younger... It hurts my heart. But I love writing about the oneiric scenario, it's so free of the reality shackles and born specifically of our creative minds...  
> I've been very emotional this couple of days, so I almost cried again. Lance is such a sweet boy...  
> And someone who can't face a serious conversation without making jokes, it's his unconscious defense mechanism, and this makes even cuter *hugs him*  
> I thank you very much for taking a time of your schedule to read this chapter. I know I'm not good doing this, and everyday I feel like I should just give up trying, but knowing at leat one person takes their time to read it, it makes me satisfied. (sorry for oversharing)  
> See you tomorrow!  
> ~Lee


	15. Day 15: Green Sand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is connected to the plot which starts on chapter 4 (15 years later)

**Day 15 (the desert): Green sand**

 

The galra weren’t expecting the arrival of Voltron and other ships of the coalition in the planet they were hidden. The attack was succeeding.

 

Everything started earlier that week. The morning after Keith’s conversation with Allura, they departed on their mission. The Blade of Marmora was already infiltrated inside the planet, since they knew where it was — they were the ones who mapped it — and were sending them information on where to land and remain incognito. Voltron would be the second to arrive at the planet, while the other member of the alliance would be hiding behind the moons of the planet, waiting for their command.

Before they left, Keith gave Lance a passionate kiss, receiving whistles and claps from those around them. Shiro looked at Adam, incertain if he should join the mission as well, but the stubborn man wouldn’t listen and said he was going on board of Atlas.

They opened the teludav on a nearer galaxy as to not raise suspicions and headed for the planet. It was a desertic planet with giant dunes and mountains, and the weird green sand was everywhere they could see.

“It’s a huge cat box, isn’t it?” joked Lance.

“If you consider we’re inside huge robot lions, it’s proportional.” followed Hunk.

Despite the smile on his face, Keith had to cut their fun.

“We’re on a mission, focus.”

As they were getting close to the target, the Blades appeared on their ships and flanked the lions until they reached an empty area.

“Adam!” said Keith to his brother “Is it really here?”

“We have to take down the barrier.” said Shiro, already locking the target on the middle of the empty spot.

When the laser seemed like it would hit the sand, a iridescent shield started appearing, suffering under the blue ray launched by the ship. The paladins joined the attack on the sides of the shield. Inside, it had a unfinished robot being built, as well as a whole galra colony. It was written on their posture that they weren’t waiting for the attack, as they left everything they were doing to enter their ships. A red alarm sounded off.

From the central base, a purple ray started charging and hit the Atlas. The robot was put on a metal box and was got carried by nearer ships to a bunker. Their barrier fell and the paladins entered, blowing up ships and galra robots on their way to the main source of counter attack.

“Form Voltron!” said Keith.

“Yeah!”

They formed Voltron, using their sword to take down the cannon on their base. Next, they broke open the bunker on which the robot was taken, just to find out it wasn’t a bunker, but a tunnel.

“Guys, they’re trying to escape through another base.” said Allura to the others.

“Now it time for the coalition to surround the planet.”

The alliance fleet had about 30 ships, and altogether with the blades, spread through the medium sized sand planet.

“Adam, do you remember another base in the planet?” Keith heard Shiro asking in a low voice. “Adam? Adam!” there were loud sounds coming from the other side of the communication before it was shut off.

“What’s happening? Shiro?!” there was no answer.

Voltron conquered the base; Lotor was nowhere at sight and Atlas stopped answering. The other member of the fleet said they hadn’t yet seen any sign of the robot or another invisible galra base. They started getting impatient, thinking they got called way too late and the ship already left the planet with Lotor and the robot.

“Atlas to Voltron, do you copy?” Shiro said, breathless.

“Copy that!” Keith answered. “What happened?”

“I don’t know, Adam went crazy all of a sudden. We suspect it was a resonance caused by the proximity to a druid, or it could be PTSD.” he dropped the bomb without meaning to. The others would end up findind out Adam's mental state anyway, him hiding it or not.

“Are you fine now?”

“Yes, he’s knocked out. Veronica found the other base while we were off, I’m sending the coordinates.”

As all of the coalition received the positions, those who were already in the area pointed their guns at the target until the others arrived. Some of them stayed back in the first base to check the insides of the tunnel and try to capture any survivors. Voltron reached the base as it was already exposed by Atlas cannon. A communication request popped up on their screen. When they accepted the channel, _he_ was there.

“Lotor” they said in unison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I admit it: I'm terrible at writing action scenes in English. But meh, that's all I can do.  
> Hope you liked this sorry excuse for a chapter.  
> See ya  
> ~Lee


	16. Day 16: The no return mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is the younger son of a minor noble family that's sent on a mission to rescue a princess who, according to the tale, is locked in a tower deep inside The Cursed Forest and is guarded by a human eater dragon. Much to his surprise, what he finds is definetly not a princess but a prince?!  
> Warning: lame jokes

“Princess, here I go!” Lance mumbles to himself.

Lance, a minor noble on the court of the king was chosen to rescue a princess from a folks’ tale and take her to marry the crown prince as a proof of his goodwill to serve the kingdom. The said princess was supposedly locked on a tower deep inside “The Cursed Forest”; not a heartwarming name for a forest, in his opinion. On top of that, she was guarded by a human eater dragon. Couldn’t she be guarded by a fluffy animal who likes to cuddle?! Lance suspected, deep inside, that he was being some sort of entertainment for the other nobles. And this wasn’t the worst part of it. He was starting to think the king was only disposing of him, because no one had come back yet from this adventure to tell the story. In spite of that, not only he would rescue the princess but would also earn the recognition for his heroism, shutting up those who dared to doubt him.

It wasn’t being easy so far, as he was almost eaten twice by wild creatures of the forest, his horse got scared of a twig it stepped on and fled and Lance was soaked to his bones after rain started pouring nonstop in the early evening. The only thing that had kept him going was the sight of the tower. He wouldn’t stop until he arrived there.

 _“I have to rescue the princess_ ” - he thought, wondering if she would reward her savior with a kiss. Lance was ready.

He walked around the tower, looking for an entrance or stairs ou anything, but there wasn’t any. The only entrance on the apparently empty building was a window, located at the top of it.

“Life ain’t easy, huh?”

Lance was a little bit frightened by the idea of climbing a 22 feet tall stone tower, even more one who looked abandoned, with plants growing from the base of the construction. And it was supposedly guarded by a dragon. And he was wet because of the non stopping rain.

“ _Think about the beautiful princess, Lance Mcclain!_ ” - he encouraged himself and let a last sigh escape from his cold lips before grabbing the tallest brick on his reach and start climbing.

He nearly fell a few times, cursing when his perfect nails started to break. He never needed to make such an effort before, and felt like his arms were about to fall off due to the pain. He was lucky that the dragon still hadn’t appeared; however things could change drastically at any moment. The blue armor knight almost fell from relief when he finally reached the open window; his hand slipped once. That was the scariest thing that happened in his whole life, hanging by one hand in there, alone.

“ _I’m a hero, I can’t die like this!_ ”

“Sweet Lord!” he trembled, gathering strength on his muscles and moving his free hand to hold the frame of the window like his life depended on it - well, it did - and pull himself up and inside the tower. He stood there, panting and shivering with fear. Or was he just cold?

He looked around the room. It was a run-down place. There was piles of dust on practically every surface and the scarce furniture was either old or broken. It looked like ruffians had found their way inside and destroyed the whole room.

Lance sneezed. Something moved on his peripheral vision, making him jump out of his skin.

“ _Tell me it’s a rat!_ ”

When the noble looked left, he noticed an almost destroyed bed with ripped mattress as if it was a giant nest of some sort. In the center of it was the thing - or more specifically the person - that moved before. The guy who was sitting on the sorry excuse for a bed seemed to be unaffected by Lance’s presence. He had a long and pit black hair; his eyes were lazily staring at Lance, as if the beauty had just woken up from his slumber. He was handsome in a ethereal way, but clearly not the princess the noble was looking for.

“Where is the princess?” Lance asked without thinking twice or introducing himself.

“There’s only me in here… I guess.” his hoarse voice made a shiver go down Lance’s spine. It was as if the man hadn’t talked for a long time, and somehow it made his heart beat fast on his chest.

“Which reminds me: why are you even sleeping in this godforsaken pla— Wait, no, the most important is the princess. Where is she?”

“ Hm… Excuse me, mister—”

“ _Sir_ Lance Mcclain. I’m a knight.” the guy didn’t need to know he was named a knight two nights ago when his king jokingly sent him on a suicidal mission. He wanted to impress him.

“Then excuse me _sir_ … But I’ve been living here for a long time and there’s no such a thing as a girl anywhere.” he raised an eyebrow, challenging Lance silently. “I think you’re in the wrong tower.”

Instead of answering, Lance found himself frightened by the scar on the guy’s cheek.

“ _Is that guy really dangerous?!_ ” his theory about the handsome guy being an outlaw started arising inside him.

“B-but what about the legends? The human eating dragon, no one ever coming out of the encounter alive…” he was aware of any and every move from the dangerous and almost mythical creature in front of him. The guy tilted his head.

“If no one got out alive, how did the word spread?” he smirked slowly.

“It makes sense…” Lance pondered “A-Anyway… The vile dragon was a story as well as the princess, it seems.” he was disappointed; he fell for the king’s prank. “Or something is actually true?”

“...Sort of.” answered him after a while “ I guess I’ll have to tell you the truth then.”

“ _Oh sweet Lord, am I going to get killed?!”_ Lance flinched when the man rose up from the bed and walked towards him. The knight looked around but there was no place to hide. His hand flew to the scabbard of his sword, only to be stopped midway by the coldest fingers closing around his wrist in a strong grip, making Lance wince.

“Centuries ago, this tower was known to be a dragon’s den. Only the bravest and the stupidest would dare to climb, only to find a terrible death.” the man got closer and closer to Lance; his presence was imposing despite being shorter than the noble. He whispered on his ear “Everything because of the massive treasure the dragon collected during his long life.”

When he turned his face to the scarily handsome guy with a scar, his lead eyes were burning amber.  Lance shivered.

“What about now?”

“It seems like I’ve become a fairy tail” he smirked, small fangs showing “but I rather stay as a nightmare.”

“Does it mean you are…”

“The dragon, yes.”

Lance’s face was so confused it was priceless.

“The dragon?!”

“What were you thinking?” his face had ‘is this guy slow?’ written all over it.

“I don’t know, a dragon slayer or something…”

Then, the dragon facepalmed. Much to Lance’s surprise, he was laughing when he lowered his hand. His toothy smile was like the sun shining through the clouds and got the knight mesmerized. It was so contagious that he found himself laughing as well, his chest warming up as the moment went on and on. Lance stared at the amber eyed dragon, the smile slowly fading. The guy was too close and looking deadly serious as if analysing if it was worthy to keep the noble alive.

“Er… Mr. dragon?” he asked, hesitant.

“Keith”

“Excuse me?” he blinked a few times.

“ Call me Keith.”

“O-okay. Mr. Keith, could you please… I don’t know… Keep me alive?”

“Have you come here to steal my gold?” his amber eyes glistered dangerously.

“No, never! It was for the princess, that’s all—”

Keith got Lance trapped between him and the wall, ceasing the distance between their bodies. As his face drew closer, the noble man was at a loss of words. The dragon’s hot breath hitting his face and the intense gaze were making Lance dizzy as if he was diving inside the shorter guy’s eyes. His heart was thumping loud with the tension flowing all over him.

“Oh, so you’re looking for a mate?” his husky voice was smoking hot - jokes apart “If that is the case, I’m a sort of prince, if royalty suits your taste.”

Lance’s voice betrayed him in that moment, getting stuck on his throat. He wanted to say the princess was supposed to be his kingdom’s prince fianceé and not his, or at least explain he was sent on a no return mission by his own king. However, nothing came out of his mouth. He kept gaping like a fish out of water.

The noble man let out a surprised sound before his mouth was fulfilled by Keith’s. Lance felt hist face burning hot as well as his blazing body, in contrast with the wet, cold and heavy clothing and armor he was wearing. Despite being a flirt, it was the first time he felt that way, let alone with only a kiss from a unknown person… No way it was only a kiss. He got taken by the dragon’s enchantment to the point his legs were giving up underneath him. Noticing Lance was sliding on the wall, Keith arms caged him between them. Passed the noble’s surprise, he responded the kiss as strong as he was given. He answered the invasive tongue with his curious one, making the dragon groan in his mouth. Lance was so into it that he couldn’t think straight anymore.

Keith was the first one to break their lips apart, panting heavily and looking at Lance through his hooded, lit up draconic eyes. They were so close that Lance couldn’t avoid noticing his vertical pupils.

The knight woke up from the spell cast by the moment and pushed the dragon.

“Hey— What was that?” Keith seemed annoyed as the daze he was in suddenly turned into confusion.

“That wasn’t my purpose in coming here. The bride were for the crown prince, not me.” he rubbed his swollen and moist lips, noticing how hot they were.

The furious expression he received as an answer scared him. Keith roared and punched the wall.

“I feel like a fool now.” he said to himself.

“But I said nothing…”

“Apparently it was my mistake.” he mumbled bitterly and let his body fall on his messy nest. “Go away, human.”

“Wait! First you kiss me and— Now you’re casting me out?! What an explosive dragon you are!” now it was Lance’s turn to be pissed off at the now nonchalant dragon.

“Return to your kind before I decide you won’t return at all” he faced the wall.

It wasn’t a menace; it looked like Keith suspected he wouldn’t be able to let this interesting human go if he spent more time with him. And they always wanted to go back to civilization once they got tired of getting their pillows constantly burnt by his breath. Not to mention the invasion of thieves and his temper.

“I was just clarifying the reason why I’m here” ranted Lance “They’re not— Listen, they don’t expect me to go back.” he scratched the back of his head uncomfortably, He shifted his weight to his left leg, staring at the ground. “The truth is that I’m the youngest son of a minor noble family. If the second son is supposed to be either a soldier or a priest, the last is just a disturbance and an expense.”

For a few minutes, Keith gave him a side glance, evaluating his pained face and thinking about what it meant.

“It’s a sad story and all, but what do you expect me to do? Offer my gold and send you on a enlightenment travel of self knowledge? Not happening.” he said, with a clouded gaze.

“I told you already! I’m not interested in you money, your selfish lizard head!”

“Then you want to sword fight with me?” he growled.

“Geez, what sort of people you’ve been meeting?” Lance pouted, much to Keith’s surprise.

He laughed for the second time in years, and the knight seemed even more troubled than before.

“You’re really different, human man.” he sounded mesmerized by this fact.

“Lance. If you’re just Keith, I’m Lance.”

“So tell me, _Lance—_ ” his voice sounded like a caress “what is it that you want from me?

“I want to test something…”

Lance got close to the dragon’s nest hesitantly but without stopping. He kneeled down on the bed, in front of Keith, looking at his face to see any sign of danger coming from the dragon. In spite of his awareness to Lance’s moves he showed no murderous intention. He seems to be rather interested, following with every action taken by Lance through his hooded eyes. When the knight was assured, he closed the distance and made the first contact with the dragon’s mouth, who opened his mouth to receive Lance’s kiss, deepening their connection and exploring his lips with his tongue. Keith intertwined his fingers on Lance’s head, trying to push him closer. The noble man’s hand went to the dragon’s face, and he caressed the scar on his cheek. It was Keith’s turn to have his heart beating loudly on his chest.

He broke up the connection to speak, breathlessly.

“What did you want to prove?” Keith whispered, unable to find his voice, since it seemed to be sucked by the kissing.

“This… ‘wow’ feeling, like a ‘bam!’ ta makes my heart go ‘ba-dump’, you know?” he seemed enthusiastic while trying to explain it.

“I think I got it.” he hadn’t, but it was so fun that he laughed in that hoarse voice of him, just to be engulfed by other deep kiss. Keith wrapped his arms around Lance and the knight separated their faces to look at him. “Why did you do that to me?” Keith was biting his lips, uncertain “now I won't want to let you go.” he said in a small voice.

“You're slow, aren't you? This was a ‘I'm staying here’ kiss.” Land scratched the back of his head “I mean, if you're okay with just me.”

Keith's arms tightened the grip on his back.

“Whoever said you're not enough, they're wrong. It makes me so angry I want to burn the whole kingdom” he frowned.

“Hey, my family is in there, and I intend to visit on holidays.” Lance put his face on the crook of his neck, hiding the silly smile he had.

“Well, it would cause a unnecessary war, so I won't” the dragon sounded proud of his conclusion, despite being embarrassed by the position they were.

“So treat me well from now on, _prince_.”

Keith let out an unintelligible sound, so happy he buried his face on Lance's brown hair.

After spending decades alone, he never expected to meet such a naive and sincere person who wasn't afraid of him or wanted something from him.

He felt so comfortable he could sleep…

 

**Bonus 1**

 

“Lance, you're making me wet…” Keith complained in a small voice, wiggling underneath the knight's weight.

Lance blushed profusely.

“W-what are you—”

“I mean, your clothes are wet and are soaking mine.” he looked puzzled for a while trying to understand why Lance was beet red, only to blush as much as him. “Geez, what were you thinking?!” Keith hid his face in his arms and Lance buried his on Keith's chest, feeling stupid for being so dirty minded.

 

**Bonus 2**

Keith took Lance on a ride in his dragon form, wandering under the night sky

_Expectation_

“This is so  much fun!!” He screamed, seeming to be having the time of his life “Can we be like this forever?!”

He let out an excited cry and clinged to Keith's red scales as he sped up and dived in the infinite blue.

 

_Reality_

“Why have I agreed with that??” Lance cried, clinging to Keith as if he’d fall at any moment. He felt his legs slipping and kneeled Keith accidentally, as a tentative of staying still. His eyes were so dry the tears started following and his hair was a mess from the mad speed the red dragon was exerting.

“Put me down, I'm gonna puke!”

Lance could swear the dragon rolled his eyes to him, producing the usual guttural sound of his disdain. All Lance could do was wait until he found a place to land.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to write a chapter based on the writer prompt "day 16: bayard exchange", but I'm feeling ill right now and so I used this chapter that I intended to post on another circumstance. I ended up chosing to follow the artist prompt, "knight/prince". Hope you enjoyed it, despite my descrition of Keith's eyes initially being gray. This was my real first attempt to write a fanfic in my whole life.  
> (maybe) see ya tomorrow  
> ~Lee  
> p.s. - Lance's family loves him


	17. Day 17: The wedding day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's introduction is on chapter 4 ("15 years later") and follows the storyline. The things that happened in this chapter took place before "day 4".

**Day 17 (formal): the wedding day**

 

Keith’s hands were sweating and his face was pale. If an outsider looked at him, they would’ve guessed the man was feeling so bad he couldn’t stand still, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. In fact, he himself wasn’t so sure he was fine enough to stand there without passing out. Nonetheless, the butterflies on his stomach guaranteed he would be just where he was, waiting for his late fianceé to stop his suffering and enter the room.

The other paladins were near him, giving him a sympathetic stare: no one knew what was taking Lance so long to enter. Allura was dressed in a long nude gown, tight on the waist and with a flowy and long length. The multiple fabric layers were topped by a diaphanous lace skirt. She looked gorgeous with her recently cut hair and soft makeup. Hunk was dressing a nice black tuxedo that made his shoulders look large; his hair was pulled back and that brought a tidy appearance to his face, his attractive side clear now. Pidge was dressed with a tuxedo top, a layered dark green skirt and short heels. She looked like a fashionable witch who lost her way to the wedding, which was very _Pidge_. Last but not least were Keith, dressing a white pleated shirt, a red waistcoat — he vehemently refused to wear a red coat because it would make him look like an 80’s casino showrunner — with a black tuxedo jacket above all. His long hair was styled in a high ponytail. Everyone was enchanted by the present groom.

Shiro seemed unsettled inside his clothing, not used to the fabric restraint. He looked like he wanted to pull out the tie off his neck. Gladly Lance appeared on that moment, and he hid the hand that was about to do precisely what it took to free Shiro from his prison.

 

Lance hope the cold compress made its part of making him look like he didn’t cry his eyes out, which he did. His sisters were helping him to get ready by styling his hair, pushing and pulling his clothing with the excuse of fixing it. Half of the time they actually were trying to hide their tears because their younger brother was getting married. His mother hasn’t said a thing about going to their ceremony. Truth is, she wasn’t very fond of their relationship and couldn’t accept the fact that Keith and him were together; she had spent a long time giving them a cold shoulder. He just wanted his _mamá_ with him on the day he was giving the biggest step of his entire life, after he finally conquered the self confidence to stop bringing himself down and think he didn’t deserve to be with the man he loved for seven years now.

He was about to raise up to go when someone knocked at the door. He allowed the person to enter and his eyes couldn’t believe what they saw: there was his mother, with flowers on her hand.

“I brought it to put on you lapel.” she said, apologetic, and didn’t offered any more words to him.

He went to her and hugged her smaller frame, covering her aged body as if he was a kid again and he could lay his head near her heart, calming to the sound of its beating. He didn’t notice his tears falling until Veronica yelled.

“You’re spoiling my masterpiece!”

He was carried back to his seat to a new round of makeup, now with his mom telling he looked handsome and how she was proud of him — which didn’t make it easier to calm down…

 

Everyone raised up from their seats and looked at Lance, who looked radiant. He was wearing a white pleated shirt, a black cummerbund and a navy blue tuxedo coat above it; a single red flower on the pocket of his coat. His wide smile showed up automatically in the moment he spotted his man standing in there, looking like he would die at any moment. When Keith noticed Lance’s mother walking hand in hand with him he was flabbergasted.

“ _Yeah, she’s here!_ ” said Lance with his eyes, in that perfect mute communication they’d developed after years together.

As he arrived where his husband-to-be stood, he couldn’t free his eyes from Keith’s. It was as if the time ran slowly and every noise around him turned off all of a sudden. He didn’t care if he was standing there, mouth open and staring at his man with everyone around looking at him. He couldn’t care less.

The ceremony passed him by like a blur. It was too much for him to process. He only knew it was his time to talk because Keith kept looking at him like he expected something. By the time it was time to read the vows, he could only made a sequence of foolish jokes that made everyone burst out laughing.

“Are you a captain? ‘Cause I think you and I would make a perfect ship.” was Keith’s answer to his vows. Lance laughed so hard his ribs hurted and the tears fell from his eyes.

It was true: they’re perfect for each other.

Keith never felt so relieved as when Shiro said he could kiss Lance. He locked their lips together, closing his eyes. His arms wrapped Lance’s waist and Lance’s big hand intertwined his hair, his tongue deepening the pleasant intrusion. Everyone started whistling and clapping, and they started chuckling in the middle of the kiss. When they separated, Keith’s hair was a mess, and that made Lance think it was the most adorable face he had ever seen in his life. The smiling face of his husband.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it! I was feeling so stressed and ill for a couple of days that I feel relieved I'm better now.  
> I loved writing the full version of their wedding day, hope you enjoyed as well~  
> See ya tomorrow!  
> ~Lee


	18. Day 18: Saudade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Saudade is a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return."  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudade

**Day 18 (with the BOM): Saudade**

 

A thing no one ever said about war is that you have to choose between what’s right and what’s common good. In theory, both walked hand in hand, but what Keith soon found out was that a mere soldier such as him was disposable, so it was more than his obligation to remain alive and accomplish his missions. He was a pawn, moving and stopping as the “king” Kolivan said so; he lost his status as an individual.

Every day he would remind himself that he was doing it to build a future free of the galra empire, which only hurted him and his brother, taking everything he once thought that belonged to him. Keith’s heart was frozen, as if it stopped on time and was constantly rewinding the moments he spent with people who actually seemed to like him. Maybe that too was an illusion and now that he was gone, they were feeling relieved.

Once in a while his hands itched to call the paladins, to call Lance, the only one who went to him in the moment he noticed there were too many paladins to pillot Voltron. His face merged into Keith’s mind every time he went to sleep, every time he was in danger and it could be the last thing he saw behind his closed eyes. His blue eyes haunted him in his dreams, to the point Keith thought he was going mad due to loneliness.

That day wasn’t different. He woke up after dreaming with Lance on a beach with him, only to realise he was alone and feeling cold in the dark room. When he got ready to leave the room, properly dressed, a messenger called him, giving him the informative about his next mission. Like this, no good morning, no “come back safe”. They were just a horse, following their pre-programmed L movements on the board.

Keith headed to his ship, wondering if it would be the last time. He always did. Maybe that was his human part that couldn’t avoid deepening his scars by diving inside his teenage and fragile subconscious. At least was what Kolivan told him to justify his hesitation on his first missions. Nowadays his body moved on its own, as if it was a divided entity from his mind. It kept saying in a chant “survive, survive…” as if he was on a hypnotic dream, moved by adrenaline.

He departed, accompanying the leader of the mission who was in a different ship. For hours they unraveled the space until they arrived to what looked like a natural satellite of some sort. It had the weirdest purple color and seemed something taken out of The Little Prince, without the adorable background story. As they landed, apparently incognito, the leader told him where he should head to as soon as he left the ship, and so he did.

The black paladin entered a cave hidden on a massive crater. It was dark and he couldn’t use anything other then his ears to guide him through what seemed to be a maze, since any source of light could explode the whole place. The silence was creeping on him, as if the sound of water dripping on the cave was crawling on his skin and scratching his eardrums in a slow and painful torture. His breath started getting out of his control. He couldn’t find the center of the maze neither the entrance, and the despair was spiraling inside him.

When he thought he would freak out, he swore he listened someone calling his name in a low voice. He looked around; it was still the same. As a fly attracted to the light, he kept following the voice that called out to him, until he reached the center of the maze. There was the stone Kolivan wanted him to find. It would be used to stabilize their HQ gravitation after the previous one got destroyed by the galra.

According to the information provided, the stone was created by the now extinct habitants of the purple planet in order to secure its core against the earthquakes that affected its natural rotation. They used magic and their group quintessence to feed the stone energy until it was capable of emitting the necessary energy to put the planet back to place. And now that Keith was taking the source out of the center of the planet, he didn’t know what was going to be of the inhabited globe. He felt ashamed of destroying what was someone else’s land in order to guarantee the common good.

Sighing, he pulled the stone out, and immediately the ground was shaken by a seismic pulse. He hurried back as the maze started disintegrating itself before him. When he finally saw the stars shining outside the cave, a wall fell on him.

He blacked out. Maybe dying in there would be his punishment.

“Keith… Keith… Come back to me, please.” someone called him, but he couldn’t tell who it was or where the voice was coming from.

A voice woke him up. A normal one this time; calling him. Keith opened his eyes, looking around him only to find himself inside his leader’s ship, lying down uncomfortably. His head hurt and his mouth was dry. If that wasn’t death, it seemed much worse.

“You were careless and almost compromised our mission.” said the harsh leader “Hope it doesn’t become a habit.”

Keith felt his eyes closing against his will. Deep inside he was sad that no “are you okay?” was uttered; that and his aching head made him miss the paladins more than ever. He wanted to go home, where his family would worry about him and would promise to always rescue him, not threaten to let him die in a random planet because he failed the mission.

He missed being human again.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a hell of a chapter for me lol  
> I don't know if the purely descriptive chapter will suit your tastes, i hope it does! I confess that writing this was a challenge to me, the person with 0 confidence in her writing skills.  
> But I'm glad I did finish this!!  
> As always, if you notice something out of place or wrong, do not hesitate to tell me about it!  
> See ya tomorrow!!  
> ~ Lee


	19. Day 19: The silver robot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The following chapter is a sequel to day 15: Green Sand

**Day 19(return to earth): The silver robot**

 

They gasped as they saw Lotor standing in front of their screen. Passed a decade, they’ve seen the one they were looking for. He concealed his presence for all those years, always under the radar and the final product was the silver robot that seemed halfway done.

Lotor haven’t aged; in spite of that, his skin looked drained, his eyes couldn’t focus on one thing, frantically moving around.

“Paladins… You’ve come a long way to meet me.” he was using in a persuasive voice, his wide smile making shivers run down Keith’s spine.

“Yes, and it’s not a pleasant visit, so quit the small talk and give yourself in.” said Allura through her teeth.

“Allura, my dear…” he said, longing, his mood changing abruptly “How much I missed you…”

Keith got surprised by the way he was acting as if the last bit of his sanity had left him. In that state of mind, he could be the most dangerous. Truth be told Keith didn’t know how the galra prince survived being left in the quintessence field; however, it clearly left scars on him.

“Let her alone, Lotor!” Keith interrupted him and his eyes turned cold.

“Give yourself in.” repeated Allura,

“Why should I? I have everything I need near me.” he grinned scaringly.

“A incomplete robot? Don’t know if you noticed that we have an entire fleet on our side.” Lance snickered. He was annoyed to see the man’s face as much as the others.

“He’s all talk but he hasn’t charged against us.” Pidge pondered.

“Maybe he’s trying to distract us.” Hunk commented.

“How would he? He’s surrounded.” Lance added

“You’re rude, discussing while I'm still talking to you.” Lotor grimaced.

In that moment, something went wrong. An individual ship was released from Atlas, ignoring all the attempts of communication Shiro was trying to establish with it. Atlas captain contacted Voltron and Keith put Lotor on hold.

“What’s that, Shiro?” Keith asked, alarmed.

“It’s Adam.” he sighed, passing his finger through his hair. “It was a trap, Keith.”

His world fell. He heard a ragged breath coming out of Pidge’s communication channel. Allura bit her finger, nervously. Only Lance and Hunk remained stable, staying in check. Keith couldn’t handle the guilt building up on him. Shiro looked like he was suffering again and he knew it was because he opened an old scar on his brother, one that wasn’t fully healed.

Although they should’ve opened fire against the ship while they still had time, the shock and disbelief made enough time for the ship to arrive on the ground. The robot reacted to his presence by vibrating slightly at first, and then shaking so much that the sand around the galra base started slipping down the dunes. Lotor laughed madily.

“ _It was all a part of his plan_.” thought Keith, bitterly.

“I confessed it was a surprise to me when you arrived. Here I thought you killed our best soldier... It seems like an earthling is weak against their own people.”

Shiro grinded his teeth together; he hated to hear Lotor referring to Adam as a galra soldier. 

“Is he seriously making a villain speech right now?” Lance asked, incredulous.

So Lotor didn’t knew who the man was. It was a point to them, and they could only hope that Adam was strong enough to fight against the mental influence he was suffering.

 _If_ he was suffering… Since they couldn’t precise if the man was being controlled or was only working for the galra. Adam didn’t use to be like that, but years under pain and torture could break a strong man, no matter how strong they were.

The robot started rebuilding itself to the point it became something new, different, _complete_. It turned into a massive silver cat shaped thing that shone bright new.

“Oh no…” Pidge muttered.

“Is that a lion?” Hunk asked.

“What you’re about to witness is the reborn of the paladins, starting with the first one. Voltron will no longer be a feared name among the galra, because we now have the panther on our side.”

“Aaand he’s still on his villain speech.” Lance said, rolling his eyes. Keith could tell he was tense by the frequency of his sarcasm.

Adam left his vessel. The panther purred and opened its mouth to him. The sound of the lasers charging in the Atlas was eerie. As they were waiting the proper moment to annihilate the menace, Keith felt sad. That man inside the space robot was his long lost brother who he wanted to cherish and protect at all costs after being hurt so much, as much as Shiro was when he got abducted during Kerberos’ mission. The tense expectation arised.

Much to their surprise, the robot turned his head to a specific point on the ground and through its mouth came a intense red laser, hitting the sand. There’s was nothing on the surface, nonetheless the laser hit it with a metal sound echoing. Lotor’s victorious face turned into one of fear.

“What’s happening?!” Hunk asked.

“I think he’s on our side.” Keith said, relieved, letting out the breath he’d been holding.

“It’s impossible! The druids’ control is absolute. There’s no way…” something fell on the background of the place Lotor was in, blurring the transmission. “No!” he screamed.

The panther moved to the point it was firing the lasers, where a big hole caused the green sand to slide inside. Its head entered the narrow space; as it withdrew, Lotor’s legs could be seen from the distance, shaking unstoppably.

“Seems like someone turned into fresh cat food.” Lance laughed.

“Dear…” Keith couldn’t help scolding his husband.

Adam required a communication channel. The moment they accepted, his hazel eyes were red like on the day Keith and Lance met him. That alarmed the black paladin; it proved to be unnecessary as the silver paladin spoke.

“Keith, I got him. Ask Shiro to come and get the panther.” his voice was ice cold; otherwise, he seemed in control.

“Why not to call him yourself?” the paladin asked.

“I don’t want him to see me like this.” was his pained reply. He didn’t want to cause any further pain on the man he loved, even more almost having beat the man posterior to his loss of consciousness; he was getting fully controlled by the druid. “There are more glara in there, be careful.”

“We’ll be fine.”

 

 

 

No galra dared to face the silver panther; when the others landed to investigate the scene, they appeared and charged against them, going down one by one. In the end, only a few were able to be captured for interrogation. A small number of human and alien prisoners got rescued. The druids control got suspended and their state was pitiable; some would scream, cry or faint out of pain while others were catatonic, unable to speak or remember their names. They were carried back on the coalition ships.

Lotor was unconscious inside the Atlas; they were heading back to Earth. Everything went better than they thought, the mission was a success. Keith finally got to breath relieved, and he wasn’t the only one. Pidge and Allura, who felt responsible for the situation, could relax.

Most of the way back they let their lions carry them while they slept. Keith got teleported to Red and was now cuddling with his husband while Kosmo laid beside them, giving his warmth to both.

For more than a month they’ve been far from home; Keith missed their room, warm and full of memories. Their bed, their matching mugs, the fragile tranquility they had when they were together on their love nest. Laying on the hard floor was the worst part. Being there with the love of his life, on the other hand, compensated for everything he complained about. Again they were going home alive and that was enough.

He only let himself fall in deep slumber because his husband was right beside him.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I was gonna let an open end after day 15, but somehow my mind kept pulling me to finish this. And maybe, just maybe, I'll write a little bit more about Lotor's situation in another day (no promises though).  
> I had a good time writing it, even if I still lack in so many ways, and I hope you enjoyed it!  
> See ya soon  
> ~Lee


	20. Day 20: Angel's announcement

**Day 20 (Keith with kids): Angels’ announcement**

 

“Let me tell him first, then you show up, okay?” whispered Lance.

The odds were against him because Keith had sharp ears and heard everything he said. The black paladin headed to the living room, leaning against the doorframe. His husband gulped loudly and looked around him, desperate.

“What are you hiding, Lance?” he asked coldly.

Lance was still looking for escape routes and took a minute to answer him.

“I don’t know what you mean, I’m not hiding anything.” he smiled sheepishly, a drop of sweat appearing on his forehead.

Kosmo teleported behind him, and someone shrieked.

“Hm… I was hiding Kosmo?” he tried.

“He just teleported! And whose voice was it?” he raised an eyebrow, looking scary. Lance flinched.

“Ah, uh… I-I…” he scratched his neck how he always did when he got embarrassed.

A girl moved away from Lance’s back. She seemed to be around ten, her afro hair was colorful and she had a fierce look on her eyes.

“I told you this was stupid.” she said to Lance, rolling her eyes. Keith was shocked.

Much to his surprise, a second girl appeared, hesitant, and grabbed Lance’s jeans, hiding her face on his leg. She was small and had an afro ponytail and her face was so deeply buried on his husband’s leg that he couldn’t see it clearly.

He looked at Lance in disbelief. Keith couldn’t understand what was happening in front of him.

“He doesn’t like us. I’m going back.” said the older girl, folding her arms and pouting, probably unconsciously.

“Wait! I haven’t talked to him yet.” Lance sent her a pleading look, and Keith knew she wouldn’t be able to do anything against his puppy face.

“Fine.”

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing. Lance wasn’t someone prone to craziness, which meant he had a very good reason for what was happening in front of him; at least it was what he was expecting, seeing two unknown kids at the entrance of the house.

“I can explain what’s happening, Keith, I swear.” he said, apologetic.

He sighed again and went on his direction, then he sat crossed-legged in front of the smaller girl. Glancing on his direction, the little girl seemed curious. The older one on the other side of Lance was alert to his every actions. Keith wondered why she was so serious, being so young. She resembled him a little in that age. He got distracted thinking about the older girl and was brought back as a small hand touched the scar on his cheek. The mere action of turning to her made her big dark eyes were open in shock.

“Hursh?” she said, caressing the place on his face where the scar was, blinking a few times.

Keith felt his eyes swim in tears. She had a scar on her cheek as well, although it wasn’t the only thing that made him emotional. She was so beautiful, like an angel, and Keith immediately felt like he found something precious, pure; he wanted to protect her from any harm.

He didn’t like children in general, not because he hated them but because he knew nothing about them and they felt like a foreign existence to him, always so loud and incapable of staying still. He had enough stress when Lance’s nephews came over, pulling Kosmo’s fur, tail and ears, breaking his vases. However, that little girl… Only looking at her deep eyes made him feel like he had found something, he just couldn’t define what was that feeling.

“No, it doesn’t.” he said, astonished.

She smiled to him, a missing teeth and a dimple making her face light up like christmas lights. Keith looked at Lance and spoke, amused:

“This girl is really something, isn’t she?”

Lance blinked a few times, moved by the scene, and smiled.

“I knew you would understand.”

He sat on the floor as well, and Keith noticed the other girl had turned her back to them, stroking Kosmo’s fur absent minded. It felt wrong to leave her there. Lance was faster than him in taking action.

“Kayla, come here.” he touched her free hand, and contrary to Keith’s expectation, she grabbed it and faced them, tears on her eyes. “Why are you crying, sweetie?”

The older girl got next to Lance’s ear and whispered, looking ashamed. The young sister and Keith, sitting side by side, looked curious at the scene. Lance eyes widened and he immediately hugged the girl. She hugged him back, sobbing quietly. Keith couldn’t be more surprise on this day even if Lance said their house was going to be blown up at any minute.

“It isn’t like this, you know?” he mumbled, patting her on the back. “Go ahead, talk to him.”

She looked at Keith, hesitantly, that fierce look on her eyes again, altogether with the trace of her tears on her face. Then he knew that it was her putting on a brave face in front of her fears. And she _was_ brave. Keith felt his chest tighten; he only opened his arms and waited. The girl was surprised, a hopeful look on her face. She hesitated for a while, then went quietly to him, hugging him softly. He smiled.

A tug on his shirt made him look to the other girl.

“Seems like Zola wants a hug too.” joked Lance, grabbing the girl and tickling her before giving her a hug.

Lance and Keith locked eyes and he knew it had no turning back. They were parents now. The feeling building up inside of him was the one that told him he no longer had option but to accept those kids or his heart wouldn’t rest peacefully.

 

It was about 10 p.m. and Keith found himself lying on the couch with Zola snoring above him. Different from her sister, who went to sleep after shyly asking Lance to tell her a bedtime story, the younger girl wouldn’t leave Keith lap — except on the time he went to bathroom. She fell asleep on his chest **,** having watched TV for an hour or so, often asking Keith silly questions and giggling at the answers.

Keith took his phone and called Shiro. It rang once, twice, and he answered.

“Hello?” his voice sounded tired.

“I’m a father.” he simply said, still shocked by that fact, and the natural it felt.

He never considered or planned having child, since him and Lance were fine with just them and Kosmo, their spoiled dog. Lance liked kids, but not to the point of taking care of one 24/7. Even more while they still had their responsibilities with the universe.

“Excuse me?” Shiro asked, loud.

“I. Am. A. Father.”

“Oh God, what you and Lance did? Who is pregnant?”

“Wait, what?” Keith laughed, but stopped when the little girl started moving. “Shiro, it’s not possible for a cis man to give birth, you know?”

“I know, but alien technology… You know?” he laughed too. It sounded rusty, as if he had forgotten how to do it. “So how that happened?"

“I don’t know yet, but Lance just showed up with two girls and they looked so lost, I just… I felt like they were our daughters the moment I took a closer look.” he sighed “I don’t know how to explain it.”

“I know how you felt.” he said, softly “The same way I did on the day I first met you.”

“Geez, you’re supposed to be bad at talking about feelings.” he was overwhelmed.

“I am!” he snickered. “Though there are things that are worth saying. I’ve learned it the worse way.” Shiro sounded thoughtful.

Keith knew he was thinking about Adam as he said that. He was still being treated and analysed after they came back to Earth. Keith would visit him every week, but he was refusing to let Shiro in and see him on a weak state. According to him, he didn’t want Shiro to be with him because he was being pitied. It would hurt him more to think the man he loved only thought of him as a shadow of the past.

“Shiro, I’m not ready for children.” he confessed while looking at Zola’s face.

“No one is, believe me. You’ll do great.” Shiro seemed more confident that Keith could ever feel about it. “And you have Lance by your side.”

“Yes, I have.” he smiled. “You’re right, thanks for hearing me out.”

“Just call me anytime and I’ll be here.” his sincerity touched Keith.

“I love you, brother.”

“I love you too, Keith… I gotta hang up or I feel like I’m going to fall asleep on the phone.”

They said goodnight to each other and Keith hung up, feeling a little more assured about this. Lance showed up on the living room and carried the sleepy girl to the guest room, laying her next to her older sister. Automatically, one clinged to the other. Lance smiled sadly and went back, letting the door halfway open so they wouldn’t feel scared if they woke up in the middle of the night.

He went to their bedroom, Keith was already there, Kosmo occupying a huge portion of the bed _and_ his husband. He never knew how Keith could breath with the wolf laying on top of him.

“Sorry to bring them without calling you first. I told them they came to visit.” he apologised.

“They’re not just visiting. You know that, don’t you?” Keith said, staring at the ceiling.

“I know… I mean, I-I—” he was speechless.

“Lance, I’m not mad, I swear. It’s just too much to process.”

He got silent, and Lance started explaining who the girls were. They came along the galra prisioners and got back to Earth after the mission of capturing Lotor. Their parents let themselves be controlled in exchange of their daughters not getting hurt — the scar on Zola’s face was made in the only occasion they tried to defy the galra authority — and not long after they started being controlled, their mental health deteriorated until they were disposed. The girls remained alive because they were going the be the next test subjects. Kayla was the only one who passed through a few tests to command the panther. She wasn’t as strong as Adam, but the fact that she could activate it became her salvation. The consequence was that the training made her turn into a cold and scared girl who was disciplined on an early age to be a soldier. Hearing that, no longer having met the girls, Lance felt he couldn’t just let them there without a safe place to return too. He grew in a big family and for him it was painful to imagine a world without family and the love they provided. He wanted to show those girls the love he had to give, even if he didn’t think of himself as a parent either.

At the end of his exhortation, tears was falling from his eyes; Keith had them strolling down the sides of his face; he was still looking at the ceiling.

“Lance…” he said, clearing his throat. “I love you, but if you surprise me like that again, I’ll kill you in your sleep.”

Lance laughed, hugging his husband waist the way he could with the wolf getting in the way.

“I couldn’t let the girls alone. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything.”

“You already said that.” he turned to face his husband. Kosmo, bothered by all the movement, left the bed and teleported. Keith could only hope he didn’t go to the girls and ended up waking them.

Keith passed his fingers through Lance’s hair — on the top of his head, the sides were shaved in a stylish undercut — and his blue eyes were like twin burning flames. He could feel his love through those sincere eyes of him. He smiled.

“I’m not letting them go back if they want to stay.”

Lance grinned, hugging his husband tight.

“I love you so much, Keith.”

“Me too, Lance.” he smiled back to Lance. “I can’t believe you made me a father on my thirties.”

“Just as you thought you’d be free from kids…” they laughed and kissed.

A knock on the door interrupted them.

“Come in.” they said.

Zola came in, sucking her thumb and looking at them, uncertain.

“Want to sleep together?” asked Keith.

She nodded and climbed the bed, laying between them. They were almost getting asleep when Keith felt a presence near the bed. He opened his sleepy eyes and saw Kayla there, looking awkward and lost.

“What happened?” he whispered, trying to not wake up the other two, who were sound asleep.

“Nightmare.” she said.

“Come here.” he made some space to her and she climbed the bed as well.

It became a little narrow for four people; well, they could buy a bigger bed. Keith fell asleep, surrounded by the new members of his family. Unexpectedly, he felt happy for the new arrivals, as well as his heart was swollen from all the love he already felt for Lance, and it increased as he felt how gentle and loving his husband was.

He was lucky he was half-galra, or his heart wouldn’t be able to handle that huge amount of happiness.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the family increased their numbers by two!  
> Sweet lord, I was so sleepy while writing this that I don't even know if it made sense at all!  
> But I loved to take my time on this chapter, after I've been pratically rushing the others because I have my daily schedule to handle (plot twist: I'm not handling it) as well as writing something that actually makes sense lol  
> I really hope you enjoyed this two kids and this chapter as well.  
> See ya soon  
> ~Lee


	21. Day 21: Failure

**Day 21 (heritage):** **Failure**

 

Keith entered the room, as well as the other paladins. Lotor’s hands and feet were tied in a chair, and he didn’t struggle to break free. Taking a closer look, he seemed like a empty shell in comparison to the charming researcher he presented himself to be while he was trying to earn their trust. On his cheeks were marks, such as in Honerva’s face. His eyes flashed everywhere, as if he couldn’t focus. Allura covered her mouth, shocked.

“Lotor.” Shiro said.

He stared at Shiro and then lowered his head. It was if he only noticed their presence in that moment.

“What do you want, paladin?” he sneered.

“Since when did you start to work for the galra?” Keith asked, and Lotor struggled to break free.

“I don’t work for them!” he tried to reach out for Keith, but ended up throwing the chair on the floor. “I don’t!”

He kept repeating it furiously. Keith was taken aback. The other paladins were startled as well, expressing their repulse and curiosity.

“You said the galra wouldn’t fear Voltron anymore.”

“I want them dead!” he screamed. A guard went to him to raise the chair and Lotor looked like he was going to bite the man, who retreated.

His every action was an enigma, and the composed version of himself disappeared for good. They couldn’t precise if this was the real Lotor that was concelead all along or that was the result of the unsafe usage of quintessence. The third option would be that something happened when he got out of the quintessence field, probably caused by Haggar. It was as intriguing as the existence of a robot similar to Voltron. What material did they used to build it? It was a mystery.

With his foot, Lance hooked the back of the chair and pulled it up. Uncommon to his personality, he pulled Lotor’s hair, who scowled.

“Enough with the play, Lotor. Why were the druids working with you if you don’t work for them?”

“I don’t! I don’t want to!!” he tried to free himself from Lance’s grip, unsuccessfully, and than gave up, breathing with difficulty. He laughed bitterly “I didn’t want to.”

“He’s insane…” said Pidge to Hunk.

“Lance.” Keith called him and he released the man’s hair.

There were little or none information they could withdraw from him in the state he was, and it was painful for Adam to try to remind the time he was being controlled. They couldn’t strain his mind any more than necessary, according to the doctor, or the damage would be irreversible. The paladins hands were tied.

As they were leaving the room, Keith looked to Lotor’s sorry state and felt no pity whatsoever. He stopped Lance solely because he didn’t want his husband to use unnecessary violence against a man who was tied or he would regret it later; Keith knew he would.

They reunited outside the room, looking through the glass to Lotor. he was frantically looking around as if he was hit by paranoia. Keith was disgusted, but couldn't precise the reason for feeling so. He hated the man, that’s for sure, but the state he was in made him incapable of seeing him as an opponent.

“I frankly don’t know what do we do now. We’re on a dead end again.” Allura said, worried.

“He could be pretending.” Pigde raised a reasonable point. But it didn’t feel like he was pretending.

“I don’t think he would act like that.” Hunk said, deep in thoughts.

“I agree.” said Lance “He would try to convince as or negotiate, not freak out and scream like that.”

“I think he has gone mad for real.” Shiro said, sighing.

“Back to square one, then.” said Keith.

“I mean, galra are mostly crazy already, but this is another level.” commented Pidge. Soon after she said the last words, she looked at Keith and her eyes widened. “Oh, Keith, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“Nevermind.” he said, annoyed.

“Why don’t we go to talk to the Blades about the info they’ve gathered in the galra labs?” Allura suggested, trying to turn the paladins' attention to something else.

“Yes!” Hunk added quickly “Maybe they’ve already decoded the system.”

“We’re going to check on our girls.” Lance put his arm on Keith’s shoulder “Coran must be tired of playing with them for so long.” he smiled awkwardly.

Both of them knew the girls were quiet, but Lance needed to take his husband from there before he exploded; Keith appreciated his effort — or he would, later. Now he was fuming and wanted to punch something.

As they headed home, Keith was silent, accompanying the change of scenery through the car's window. He leaned his head on the glass and breathed deeply. Lance was tense, planning what he would say when Keith said something, if he said something. He could ruminate his thoughts for days before he took the initiative to open up with Lance. In the beginning he would keep it to himself, but as their time together and intimacy increased, he started opening up to his husband, knowing it would make him feel better than if he kept it to himself.

Zola ran to Keith - he barely entered the house - and he retributed the hug she gave him. He sat on the ground as he always did, intending to stay on her same eye level, never above. He looked at her happy face and a smile opened up on his face even before he thought about it. Kayla was behind her, and hugged him in that hesitant way she always had while displaying emotion. He kissed the top of her head, and she touched the space between his eyebrows.

“Are you okay, Keith?” she asked. Lance said she could call him whatever she wanted, even if he wanted to be called “dad”. As usual, no one could deny his charming ways and his puppy eyes, so she started calling him that, but the process was on start with Keith.

“Now I am.” he said.

“Okay.” she didn’t looked convinced.

“Tell me about your day.” he stood up and took her hand, going to the kitchen. On the way he said hi to Coran, who was half asleep on the couch. Lance was talking to him

“We baked cookies, and Coran almost ate everything!” she complained, pointing at the altean.

“Oh no, there are not enough for us?” he pretended to be worried.

“I’ve hidden some.” she said it as a secret.

“Smart kid.”

They started eating in silence, but not for so long.

“Are you okay?” she asked again.

“No.” he confessed, letting a half eaten cookie on the plate “Am I bad because I’m half alien?” he wondered, more to himself than to her.

“You’re not.” she rolled her eyes.

He was afraid of telling her he was half-galra and lose the trust he had earned. But he had to be true to her.

“Even if I’m one of those alien who attacked you?” she got shocked and Keith regretted saying that. He looked at the door, wishing Lance would enter through it already.

Then she smiled at him.

“I saw you mom already, duh.”

Keith blinked once. Twice. A third time.

“When have you seen her?” he was the confused one here.

“She rescued us. Dad Lance told me she was your mom.” she played with her colorful braided hair. Keith couldn’t be more surprised.

“You’re alright with that?” she nodded, nonchalantly.

“People are good and bad. Aliens too.” she shrugged her shoulders and went back to eat.

A soft laughter sounded from behind Keith. He looked at the owner of the rich voice he loved to hear. Lance put Zola on the ground and she sat on Keith’s lap, getting a cookie from his plate and munching it. Kyla frowned and complained it was for Keith and Lance.

“Let her have it.” Lance said. “I’ll eat this half eaten one.” he took a bite “Hm, it’s good! You two are great at cooking, you should teach Keith.” he joked and then winced; Keith pinched his arms, chuckling. Zola giggled with her hands holding her belly.

 

It was after midnight, the girls finally had gone to sleep and Keith and Lance had already bathed. They tiredly cuddled on their bed. Lance ran his fingers through his husband's hair from the root to its tips again and again, brushing it.

“You know, our girl is wise.” he commented, and Keith opened his sleepy eyes.

“She is.”

“And she’s right. It doesn’t matter if you’re half or full galra, or if you’re a half house cat whatsoever. You’d be my Keith in every possible way.” he spreaded gentle kisses all over Keith’s face and chin, and neck.

“I know that…” he sighed “It’s just… I wonder if I’d end up like _him_ , in that sorry state. What if I can’t run away from my blood heritage?” he was uncertain.

“I’d be there to stop you.” Lance looked deadly serious. “Even though it's unnecessary for me to assure you something you should know that won’t happen.” he kissed the scar on Keith’s face “You’re you, _cariño_. It shouldn’t be that complicated.”

“You’re right. Maybe I wanted to hear that from someone else, even if it was a complete nonsense.”

“It wasn’t, I promise.” he kept massaging Keith’s scalp until he relaxed and slept.

He sighed and hugged Keith, wishing his words could get through to him and make his mind rest easy. His husband was his whole world and more, and he wanted him to be safe and happy, no matter what.

Lance fell asleep embracing Keith as if he would fade at any moment if he let him go.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My eyes hurt so baaaaad and I' sooo tired I don't know how I made it to this point lol  
> I'm so sorry if there's anything wrong and making no sense in this chapter, I swear I'll proofread it tomorrow, because I just can't take how tired I am now.  
> Hope you enjoyed it, was a kinda sad chapter but I guess they'll make it through this, even more because their beautiful daughters are beside them.  
> About Lotor's arc, I guess (?) it's finally the end because I don't think I can't pull this further. But no worries, I'm thinking things through to see if I can use it on the later days of this month, no guarantees. Besides, adult Klance will go on since I love it.  
> And that's it, hope you enjoy, see you tomorrow  
> ~Lee


	22. Day 22: Spoiled

**Day 22 (bonding with Kosmo): Spoiled**

 

“Boy, put her down.” said Keith, hands on his hips and waiting.

Kosmo had been teleporting across the house the whole day with [Zola](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16159973/chapters/38283371) on his back. Her enthusiastic screaming and Kosmo almost getting stuck in the middle of an object was stressing him. Furthermore, there were the overexcited images he was sending to Keith, making his head spin to the point he was dizzy and with a headache.

The wolf whined and laid on the floor. Zola got off, pouting and crossing her arms. Kayla saved him when she took the girl by the hand and invited her to play on their room — no longer the guest room, but their remodeled room. As they were leaving, the older girl mouthed a “thank you” and entered. It seems she couldn't handle all the noise as well.

Keith sat down, massaging his temples and Kosmo kept sending “pet me” images.

“No, you’re being a bad boy.” complained Keith. “Not only you were teleporting to go after a neighbor cat yesterday, today you decided you were going to break the whole house. Don’t go thinking you deserve praise.”

An image of Lance popped up on his mind.

“No, he isn’t here to defend you.” Keith smirked seconds before receiving a lick attack.

He couldn’t push Kosmo back and ended up giving up, laughing.

“You’re not fair!”

  


They met in the most unexpected place, and the paladin didn’t expect Kosmo to hang around him, he having already fed him. They first met in the abyss; at first, the cub didn’t interact much with Keith, preferring to teleport around and come back later, tired. He got back to sleep at night and they cuddled because it was cold. That was it. Mutual benefits, no emotional bond.

Keith never had a dog — technically, Kosmo was a wolf —, and so he didn’t know how to take care of one. After a while, images started flowing to his head. He thought they were a glimpse of the future or the past, but it was always followed by an emotion foreign to his, as if someone was suggesting them to him. It was basically simple commands, such as “hungry”, “play”, “sleep”. He figured out it came from the wolf. At first it scared him, having images flowing on his head, but time and circumstance made it easier to deal with. Their bond gradatively grew in the course of two years they’ve spent in the abyss. The paladin had even tried to teach him to fetch the twig, but the wolf would just stare at him for a long while. He felt like an idiot doing that, so he stopped.

The others didn’t understand when he told them that the wolf hadn’t said his name to him, so he decided to never tell them about their conexion. For Keith’s happiness, Hunk chose his name and Kosmo was very pleased. He was such a helpful friend to him and the other paladins, it was only fair he got a name.

  


Now, all those years spent together, Keith thought he would feel lonely if Kosmo didn’t share those images with him, because he was the first pet — if he could call him that — Keith had and he was the most incredible of them all.

The only thing he could have stopped was Lance spoiling the wolf the way he did; due to that, he turned into a dog snack addicted and a whimsical house pet. And every time he complained, Kosmo would be on Lance’s side.

Well, one thing he hid as a secret from Lance was that Kosmo would get a little bit jealous of him aroundh Keith. He thought Lance would be heartbroken if he knew, ad Kosmo agreed with that statement. After all, no one else would painstakingly brush his fur and give him leftovers while his other owner wasn’t looking — even if he knew by the happy images the naive wolf sent him without noticing. Truth is, he loved Lance. However, at the end of the day, Keith was his first and beloved owner, the person who saved his life. The wolf recognised Keith as a friend, and their bond would last a whole life.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I had written more, but I've spent my whole day studing for the test I have tomorrow and crying, not in that order lol  
> Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter and see ya soon!~  
> ~Lee


	23. Day 23: Tradition

**Day 23 (birthday): Tradition**

 

Keith woke up to something tickling his nose. He opened his eyes to see Lance’s mischievous smile. It was so breathtaking to look at his husband’s face in the morning that he was speechless.

“Morning, _cariño_.” he gave Keith a light kiss. “I brought you a birthday gift.”

Every time Lance smiled like that, he were up to no good. Keith couldn’t wait to see what was inside the little box his husband put on top of his chest. As he was unwrapping it, Lance bit his lips to hold himself from laughing. It was getting even more suspicious.

His mouth hung open as he saw what was inside. He raised an eyebrow to his husband, who couldn’t resist anymore and started laughing.

“Geez, Lance. So early in the morning…” he hid his face on his hand, blushing.

“You said you wanted to try it…” he shrugged his own embarrassment and started heading towards the door. “Dress up nicely and meet us on the kitchen. [The girls](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16159973/chapters/38283371) and I are gonna wait you there.” he winked to his husband “And hide it before Kosmo ends up finding it by accident.”

“I don’t even want to imagine this scenario.” he shivered.

 

After taking a bath and dressing up, Keith headed to the kitchen. He was glad Lance didn’t throw a party for him this year, since he really didn’t like to celebrate his birthday in a flamboyant way, the way his husband grew used to due to his heritage. He wanted to spend the day with his family, maybe hang out somewhere so they would forget it was “his day”.

How wrong was he. As he entered the kitchen, a chorus of “surprise” made him glare at Lance, who was smirking uncontrollably. So _that_ was why he was smiling like that when he woke him up; Keith should have known better, but every single year he was tricked by his husband into going to his surprise party. Now the party went to him, apparently.

His whole family was there, plus Lance’s family — how he fit everyone on the kitchen was something he would never comprehend, since it was physically impossible.

“Lance!” he complained, a smile fighting to show up. Lance hugged him from behind and he leaned against his husband “I hate you” he mouthed.

Their girls run to him, giving him their gift.

“I chose!” said Zola, giving her characteristic toothless smile with a dimple on her cheek.

“Dad Lance helped us.” Kayla added, waiting for his approval. “Happy birthday… Dad.” she got shy.

He felt fulfilled by their love. He opened up and laughed at the animal onesie inside, then hugged both of them, thanking them for their gift. In fact, the two girls were the best present he could have earned this year, and this alone made him happy.

Everyone around them was looking at the scene with silly smiles on their faces, even more Krolia, who lately had become the best grandma in the world. Keith could only think she would’ve given him the same amount of attention if it wasn’t for the intergalactic war that broke them apart. In spite of that, he wouldn’t change a thing, since it got him to meet so many people he considered family, and Lance, with whom he made his last family.

A glimpse of something caught his eyes and he saw Adam in the corner of the room, quiet but smiling. He looked fine, despite the hell he’d been through for a few months now. He smiled at Keith.

“You’re here!” he said, surprised, getting close to him. They hugged.

“Of course, I wouldn’t miss your first birthday since my return to Earth.” he looked so proud of Keith that it made him as shy as his daughter would be receiving compliments from their fatherly figures.

“Happy birthday, Keith!!” said Hunk, giving him a bear hug and taking him off the ground.

“Thanks… Hunk.” he said, breathless.

The other gave him their best wishes, and a pile of presents started forming on a corner of the living room, where they spreaded after surprehending him. They were loud and the kids started running across the room. It was a nightmare.

“You’re that pissed off?” asked Lance, giving him a plate with food.

“You’re cleaning it up.” he smiled to Lance, who sighed, relieved.

“Hey, stop feeding Kosmo!” Lance screamed at his nephews, who ran away giggling.

Keith crossed his arms.

 

One thing he had to admit, against his will: birthday parties were fun. It didn’t use to be like that when he was younger and his father passed away, but every since he entered the garrison and then, with the paladins, there were never a year he would call his birthday an “ordinary” event. After he started dating Lance, he would always find a way to surprise him. This year he expected it would be a picnic or something simple, but he had to go out of his way to gather everyone inside their house.

Keith was happy to see their girls interacting with other kids normally. The small Zola were the game leader; everyone followed her without fighting for leadership. He could understand why: the girl were capable to wrap everyone on her little finger without much effort.

By the end of the day, he was exhausted of dealing with people, but a good kind of tiredness. One by one they left, giving him their best regards. Adam looked a little stressed for being in a noisy place, but his smile was sincere. He wished he could do something for him, or Shiro, who kept glancing at his ex the whole day.

Zola and Kayla were out like a light on the couch, one’s head to the other’s shoulder. Lance didn’t want to wake them, so with Keith’s help, they carried the girls to their room. Kosmo, who was full, was sleeping on the mat. The happy gluttony images he was sending Keith made him scowl.

“Are you a pig?” muttered him.

The couple bathed together — Lance mostly washing him while he was half asleep — then headed to their bed. Both were tired, even more Lance, who organized and hosted the party and kept the secret for so long. Keith was impressed that he didn’t spoil it by telling him.

“Should we start our private party?” he asked, trying to seem sexy, but only achieving to sound groggy.

“You’re going to sleep in the middle, for sure.” Keith snickered.

Lance didn’t answer. He looked at him and smiled at his sleepy face. Every year he got really glad he existed in this world Lance was in. It was colorful, tender and made him better as a human — well, half-human — being. He was so in love with the man it hurted.

“ _Happy birthday to me._ ” he thought before falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was shorter than I intended, but again I wasn't feeling so well and I could only reach this much by constantly repeating on my head "do it for Keith". I liked the result, though. I've shown how his birthday parties usually are, even if I wanted to deepen the description. Well, I can't have everything lol  
> The inspiration for Keith's aversion to parties was a friend of mine who says she hates parties but every year we throw surprise parties for her. She always fall for that, somehow. lol  
>   
> Hope you enjoyed it though  
> ~Lee


	24. Day 24: Blacksmith

**Day 24 (in another universe): Blacksmith**

 

Keith enjoyed the time he got to spend with his father as he was working. Every villager would come by from time to time to require his service and compliment the results afterwards. Keith ended up knowing everyone in there; his dad was the best and people recognised that.

After his father passed away, he was taken in by Shiro as a blacksmith apprentice. He said it was to pay the debt that he had with Keith’s father for having teached him the occupation. He and the man who lived with him, Adam, brought him up in a caring way. Adam was an erudit and taught him how to read and write.

As he got old enough, he assumed the tent his father left him before he passed away. Shiro and Adam traveled to another village and he was by himself. A general crisis affected the village functioning; the lord who owned the land increased the taxes and people started avoiding spending money with evitable stuff. Unfortunately, he started losing his customers, they would come to him only when their old artefacts were broken, begging for a discount of some sort. He thought things were lost and was packing to leave to another village, as Shiro did, although he didn’t want to live the place he was born and raised.

To his surprise, a itinerant circus arrived in town, and his services were required for the first time in a long while.

  


He looked around, noticing how noisy and unorganized was the space that was still under construction. People would pass by him, often bumping into him and going away without apologizing. It looked like madness. He had a map on his hands, indicating where he should head to in order to speak with the owner, but he couldn’t even understand where exactly he was.

A man showed up in front of him, making his heart almost stop from surprise. He made a “follow me” gesture and started walking as if he knew where he was going. Without a word, he went after the man. He reached a wagon, very much like those used by gypsy people. In front of it were two people, sitting on piles of hay. They looked intimate as they talked to each other without much distance between them. The tall man who guided him cleared his throat, and they broke visual contact; they greeted the two of them.

“You called me here. I’m Keith.”

A young green eyed man shook his hand energetically and smiled at him.

“You must be the blacksmith. My name is Amadeu,” he pointed at the other two people with him “this one here” he was referring to the man with a long brown hair, tied in a loose braid “is Eliel. He’s a trapezist. And the man who brought you here” the said man greeted him with a nod “is Lance.”

“He’s always that silent?” asked Keith, interested. Eliel and Amadeu looked at each other and laughed. Lance was having fun with it as well.

“Believe me, you couldn’t be more wrong.” Amadeu wiped a tear he got from laughing so much. “He’s training for his next presentation.”

“For what?” it catched his curiosity. Then he remembered what he was there for. “No, never mind. I need to talk to the owner.”

Amadeu blinked a few times, his expression blank.

“It happens to be me.” he bit his lips to stop himself from laughing.

The man couldn’t be more far from Keith’s image of the owner of something; maybe if he was a little more serious. But that wasn’t all. Amadeu was young, his black hair as dark as a raven’s feather. His leaf green eyes seemed to know everything and reveal nothing at the same time, which was kind of uncomfortable. But the easy smile on his face eased this feature.

“Now that you know who I am, can we talk about business?”

As he started talking, Lance would eventually catch his attention. He distanced himself from them, but he was mimicking everything Amadeu did, his blue eyes full of mischief. It was hard to concentrate on what the owner was saying because he couldn’t avoid looking at the man being a fool. And he wasn’t the only one; Eliel, the man near the owner, was enjoying the show as well.

“Why don’t you go with Lance to see the knife thrower?” the owner smirked at him.

He had butterflies on his stomach but couldn’t understand why. Lance, contrary to every expectation, grabbed his hand and started leading him to the opposite way. His cheeks were burning hot, but the guy didn’t seem to notice.

  


Keith spent the rest of the day trying to forget Lance’s touch on his hand. He was forging the daggers they would use on their first show, and it was the first income he would have in so long. Nevertheless, he couldn’t care less, his mind rewinding Lance’s every action. He didn’t get to figure out what the man was, but he was supposing it was a myme.

He received tickets for the presentation as a courtesy, but he couldn’t be less interested. The only time he went to a circus presentation he was a small child, and remembering the clowns made a shiver run down his spine. He wanted to see Lance, so he had to endure it.

The hammer almost hit his finger.

“ _Focus, focus…_ ” he thought.

He quickly raised his head as he felt someone's presence; the hammer fell on his feet and tears formed on his eyes. There was Lance, as if he came straight out of a hallucination or something.

“Geez, man.” he put his hand to his heart. “Do you want to kill me?”

He didn’t answer, as he expected. Lance tried to raise the hammer, but it fell a second time on Keith’s foot. He covered his face, wincing. Then he dragged it until it rested on the floor. Keith was cursing. Lance kneeled down, took his boot off and started massaging his feet. His face was desperate, and the guilt on it was so comic it distracted him of the pain he was feeling. He kept looking at the top on his head, wondering if his hair was soft as it looked like being.

Lance raised his head and their gazes met. Keith unconsciously closed off the distance between them and the silent man blushed but didn’t retreat…

The blacksmith got up, embarrassed, and Lance fell on his butt, blinking confused. He asked with his eyes what Keith was doing, but it didn’t get through to him.

“I have… work.” he said, waiting the man would understand.

He only return to his work; he heard Lance leaving, stomping his feet, and sighed.

  


For a week, he got the three daggers ready, absent minded. Lance never came back, and he could understand why. The man was annoyed to be left hanging after the tension that both felt between them. Keith wasn’t ready to see the man again, but he had to deliver the weapons and receive the money for it. It would be the necessary amount to leave the village and start living his life anew.

His eyes automatically searched for the mysterious man when he entered the now ready space. The tent was on place, and the colors on it contrasted beautifully with the sunset. He wandered outside, trying to find a entering; what he found out was shocking. The owner, Amadeu, now dressed as the ringleader, had his arms around the trapezist, dressed is flashy colors. They looked so tender together; he didn’t knew where to go or what to say.

Someone pulled him by his arms, leading him to a crowded place where the other artists were getting ready. Again, it was Lance. He looked at his face, white with makeup, and snickered. Lance pouted as a child, and it was adorable. Over the white, under his cheek, were a blue crescent moon. His red nose made the scene even more funny.

“I can’t believe you’re a clown.” Keith said, mesmerised. His nemesis was also the man he had a crush on.

“Oh, Keith, you’re here!” Amadeu said entering the tent, with Eliel close behind him. Keith tried to keep a blank expression.

“I brought the blades.” he showed it to the ringleader, who winced.

“The thing is… Our knife thrower is no longer our employee.” he seemed apologetic.

Keith’s world fell.

“What do you mean? I need the money!” he folded his arms, glaring at the ringleader. “Why no one told me anything?”

“No one?” he looked at Lance who lowered his gaze. “I see…” he got thoughtful and then looked like he had an epiphany “I can pay you, but I'll double the price if you did something for me.”  
“Excuse me?”

“Do you know how to throw knives?” he happened to know, so what was the damage in doing it in front of many people… With the risk of killing someone…

“ _What did I put myself into?_ ” he wondered, too late to go back.

 

He dressed in an unfashionable clothing, weirdly receiving compliments from everyone in there. A white haired girl sit beside him and started talking to him with the most graceful british accent he had ever heard.

“Do you want me to braid your hair?” the woman, called Allura, offered. “I do it for Eliel all the time, since we work together as trapezists.”

He let her do his hair, since he couldn’t braid it to save his life, but Lance interfered, pulling it from her hand softly. She giggled at something Keith couldn’t see, and let the clown make his hair, more skillfully then he expected of a guy as clumsy as to let a hammer fall on his foot.

A man started analysing his blades and went to him.

“You’re the blacksmith, right?” he was using yellow and orange clothing. “Can I hire you later to make a sword for me?”

“A sword?”

“Yes, I do sword swallowing.”

Keith frowned, unable to imagine how the man did it.

“Oh, it’s easy, you have to—”

“Hey, Hunk, no telling secrets to outsiders.” said a young girl in green, stretching.

“Who is she?” Keith whispered.

“She’s Pidge, she’s on tightrope.”

Lance started imitating her and pretending to fall down. Keith laughed as the girl pulled the clown’s ear. He was different form the clowns he saw as a kid. Less scary, or better, not scary at all. He was only clumsy and very charming — but his opinion was biased.

  


After the presentation, his hands were sweaty and he still felt his heart thumping loudly on his chest. Keith wasn’t used to people looking at him and didn’t like to be in the center of the attention. He changed back into his clothing and went to the bleachers, sitting in a vacant place in the front just in time to see Lance entering the ring.

He never laughed so much in his life. The clown’s presence made him the sun on the center of the show, with the audience gravitating around him. Everyone couldn’t help but follow his every movement and the uncoordinated way he acted, always failing the simplest quests. His last act weren’t focused on the comedy, but in passing a message. At the end of it, everyone was brought to tears. It was a first time for Keith to feel like this, reflecting on something he was watching and not doing it only for the entertainment.

Keith didn’t want it to end, but it did, and he was left there, mesmerised.

The other presentations paled in comparison to Lance’s, to the point he left before it ended in search for the man.

“Hey, you did fine and didn’t kill anyone.” he heard a rich voice behind him.

“You can talk!” he said, turning to the man with a smirk on his face.

“Now that the show is done…” he ended up their distance, invading his personal space as well as his mouth in one go.

He closed his eyes and fought Lance’s tongue with his own. Keith grabbed him by his neck, pulling him closer. Their kiss was so intense he was feeling giddy. The separated for a second so they could breath; Keith was the first to notice the others staring at him and got so red he could die of it.

“Oh, guys, you’re there!” Lance shamelessly said.

“ _Bury me._ ” thought Keith.

 

Keith was done packing when Lance dropped by. He got surprised to see the blacksmith ready to leave, then sad because that probably meant they weren’t going to see each other again. As they’ve spent the week working together and flirting to their heart’s content, Keith confessed it probably was the last week he’d spent on his village. Lance thought he could convince him to leave with the circus, since everyone liked him better than the previous knife thrower — he left because he couldn’t accept Amadeu and Eliel’s relationship — and his show was always a success. However, it seemed like Keith already decided to go, and it was not with him and the circus.

He sadly kicked a rock, which made Keith turn his attention to him. He tried to hide his disappointed face so he could see him off with a smile, but the blacksmith wasn’t tricked by his facade. Keith cupped his cheek and Lance let himself be touched like he was cherished — which he was, despite not knowing.

“Are you going now?” he asked in a small voice.

“Yes. I’ve packed my personal belongings, but I may need help carrying the rest of the things.”

“Help?” Lance didn’t understand “If you’re leaving, there’s no way I can let the circus to help you.”

“What do you mean? Aren’t we going back there?” Keith was as puzzled as Lance.

“You’re not going to another village?”

“No!” he said. For a while he kept pondering, then added “Didn’t I tell you?”

“You didn’t!” Lance pouted.

“I’m sorry!” he hugged the man, calming his rising temper.

Lance got so happy that Keith wasn’t going to leave that he immediately forgave him for forgetting to tell him he was going to stay. He raised the slightly smaller but heavy man, holding him by his waist.

When Keith was put down, he kissed the man he was in love with, sealing their silent compromise to stay together as long as he lived. It was an intense feeling he was going to keep to himself for now, because he knew the man for least than a month. But he was sure that the feeling flowed both ways, since Lance’s face was an open book.

And that was the story of how the blacksmith ran away with the circus.

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter is not as I expected, I confess... And I think it's no good... *cries in klance language"  
> I smuggled two of my OC's in here just because I wanted too lol they have their own story and it's lovely. Random curiosity no one cares: Amadeu's stage name is Magnus (I really loved Magnus Bance back then, I still do now) and beyond being the ringleader he is a illusionist (yup, so beautiful he's an illusion).  
> Anyway, I'm a clown and I love the way we can put everything on our bodies and act it out our insecurities. So I wanted to put Lance as one, just because.  
> Also, I didn't get to convey it, but in my mind, Keith as a blacksmith looks like heaven.  
> That's all, see ya!  
> ~Lee  
> P.S. Lance has a moon drawn on his face because he thinks as himself as being the moon, when in fact he is the sun


	25. Day 25: Rubix Cube

**Day 25 (hidden talent): Rubix Cube**

 

“Keith, how long are you going to stay on the bathroom?” Lance asked for the umpteenth time, knocking on the door. Keith got startled.

“I’m going!”

Everything started when he was cleaning his part of the closet and found a card box, still closed since they’ve moved in, and that enticed his curiosity. Inside, he found some old clothing, his father’s fingerless gloves, a few toys. In the middle of those, he found his rubix cube and felt nostalgic. He was crazy about that thing when he was younger, to the point he could do it in two minutes and people started competing with him.

It was something he felt very embarrassed of remembering nowadays, because it made him feel superior to the others when it was a literally ancient game that most people could master.

Keith felt the urge to see if he was still as fast as he was back then.

“ _Just once_.” he thought.

 

Now he were locked inside the bathroom, sitting on the toilet and couldn’t stop doing it over and over, until he could complete it in a minute. Keith felt so great; not only he still had it, he was better than he was when he was younger.

As stupid as it seemed, he didn’t want to show it to Lance and jinx his abilities, since every time he wanted to show something great he had done, the said thing would suddenly go wrong and make him regret it, despite Lance saying it was okay and he believed him.

“ _Cariño_ , are you sure you okay?” Lance asked at the other side of the door.

He remembered his husband was still outside once again. He was immersed in what he was doing to the point he even forgot Lance knocking on the door.

“I’m fine” he answered in a muffled voice, concentrated on what he was doing.

“Keith, if you don’t open it I’m gonna break the door.” Lance said.

His husband’s voice was so serious he couldn't ignore him any further. Keith opened the door, still playing with the cube with his free hand while holding the door with the other. Lance worriedly check him to see if he was fine, not understanding what was happening.

“Are you feeling fine? Should o go to the hospital?”

“I am.” he hid the cube behind his back.

“What are you hiding in there?” he tried to enter the bathroom but Keith didn’t let him pass or he would see the reflexion of the cube in the mirror.

“Nothing.” he said too quickly. He didn’t know why he was so embarrassed of playing in front of his husband, but he was.

Lance forced himself in, then frowned when he noticed what exactly Keith had been doing.

“Did you really locked yourself in the bathroom because you were playing with a rubix cube?” his furrowed brows were adorable and made Keith lose his focus for a while.

“Hm…” he lowered his gaze “Maybe?”

“Why?” Lance put his finger under his husband’s chin, raising it so they could look at each other in the eyes.

“I didn’t want you to think I’m weird because I lose notion of time when I’m playing it.” he mumbled awkwardly.

“You almost gave me a heart attack, you know?” Lance hugged him tight, sighing relieved. Then, he started laughing, his shoulders shaking. “Sorry… It’s just…”

“It’s stupid.” Keith pouted.

“Hey…” Lance cupped his cheeks and smiled at him “It isn’t. I love to see you focused. It’s sexy.” he waggled his eyebrows, and Keith rolled his eyes. “Besides, I want to see how good you are. Show me.”

Keith did it. Lance’s eyes jumped on his obits as he was astonished. He would keep that face on his memory, since it was hilarious. When was Lance’s turn to try it, he lost his patience in the middle and said something was wrong with the cube.

Only his husband could make him comfortable of being a weirdo around him, and would join him in his weirdness. And that’s why he enjoyed spending time with him doing the silliest things.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a short one about Keith's quirky way of demonstrating he's really into something. It was funny to write it, my sister was the one who gave me the idea of writing about a rubix cube.  
> See ya tomorrow~  
> ~Lee


	26. Day 26: Glance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains reference to a previous chapter (Day 23: Tradition)  
> I recommend reading it first for better comprehension.

Day 26 (Keith’s journal): Glance

 

Day 1 

_I’ve been noticing something for a while now, and I decided I should keep record of what is happening in order to find out why this is happening. The thing is: Lance has this habit of looking at me when he thinks I’m not paying attention, but if I stare at him he avoids my eyes. And it has gone worse in the last couple of days. I’m wondering if I forgot our anniversary or something, but it was last month, I don’t understand. It’s suspicious and I want to figure out why is he doing it._

 

Day 2 

_Today I observed Lance’s habits very closely without being a creep. I woke up, he was already up and helping the girls with their hair — I’m terrible at it. I made them sandwiches, since it’s the only thing Lance allowed me to do in the kitchen that didn’t involve me putting the oven on fire accidentally._

_Normally, Lance would drop the girls at school and we would head to Garrison for work and go separated ways. But since today was our matching day off, we decided to return home after taking them to school._

_As we were going back, I felt Lance was staring at me again, and even after all those years, I felt like blushing, even though I have no idea of why he’s doing it. Somehow when we were watching a movie and making out, he seemed different from usual, and it made me slightly scared._

_I mean, he isn’t getting tired of me, is he?_

_Nah, he’s Lance, c’mom Keith…_

 

Day 3 

_It’s already night and the girls are sleeping._

_I’m pretending to write a report for work so Lance doesn’t figure out I’m writing about him in front of him. But I needed to write it down right away or I would forget the details._

_He’s sitting across the table and we’ve turned this whole glance thing into a staring contest. I don’t know why he forgot to avoid my eyes when he looks at me, but I’m feeling under a microscope like this. When I looked at him, his face was concentrated on mine, and I couldn’t avoid doing the same thing._

_I wish I was a poet to write down in a proper way how handsome he is. His freckles, his blue eyes, the way his bed hair looked and how it was growing wildly after he cut it military style. Even his focused expression was not only gorgeous but also…_

  
  


Lance closed the notebook.

“Hey, I was writing!” Keith complained, hiding the notebook on his lap underneath the table cloth.

“Since when did you developed the habit of writing a diary?” Lance raised an eyebrow.

“It’s not a diary, it’s a observation journal.” he said as a matter of fact.

“Can I see it then?”

“No!”

“Then it’s a diary!” Lance pointed at him, smirking.

“It isn’t.”

“It’s so secret you can’t tell your husband?” he pouted, leaning back on the chair and crossing his arms. Keith couldn’t believe he dared to look offended when he was the one to make him mad with worries.

“I’m not the one hiding secrets here, am I?” he mirrored Lance’s pose.

“Wait, me?” Lance blinked a few times, not understanding his point.

“Are you going to deny that you’ve been glancing at me when you think I’m not paying attention?”

To his surprise, Lance blushed profusely until even his ears were red. Keith was caught off guard by his expression.

“Eh? You’ve noticed it? I-I-I…” he hid his face with his hands.

Keith still couldn’t believe he was seeing his husband blush like that after all those years they’ve spent together. And he wasn’t even one to blush easily, which only made him even more confused. Part of him wanted to remove the hands from his face and admire it, but the other half wanted to know the truth.

“So?” he asked, impatient.

“It’s just that… The gift I gave you… You haven’t said anything about it and I thought you didn’t like it.” he avoided looking at Keith, who was baffled.

“That’s why you were doing that?” he was relieved.

“Yes, I was thinking about it and ended up being weird, I’m sorry.” Lance hid his face once again.

“I can’t believe you made me worry for this.” Keith felt his temper rising.

Lance spent the next days trying to calm him down. In the end, it was worth it.

 

Day 4 

_After the stress I’ve been dealing with, trying to figure what was wrong with my silly husband, I can say it was worth. I had to forgive him since he combed my hair, did everything I asked and made me my favorite dish. Also, he watched my favorite horror movie with me, even if he hates it. He was so dedicated to make me feel better that I couldn’t help but to forgive him for worrying me senselessly._

_And again, he’s still glancing at me, but in his usual loving way. Things couldn’t be more calm than now._

_Uh-oh, too soon. Kosmo has just eaten the head of Zola’s doll._

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL! I'm so embarrassed myself, but it was the only thing I could come up with last minute (I should plan my stuff better).  
> Before you ask me, I haven't thought about what gift Keith received on his birthday and I'm letting it open for interpretation, as well as this whole chapter, which wasn't one of my best btw. I won't deepen this any further.  
> Sorry if it was weird, I made it intending to be a funny situation born on misunderstanding.  
> See ya  
> ~Lee


	27. Day 27: Family Adventure

**Day 27 (pumpkin picking): Family adventure**

 

Lance drove them to the nearer pumpkin patch, Zola bouncing on the back seat as if she was about to explode in a supernova. In her own way, Kayla was excited as well, looking outside the window and then at Lance, silently waiting for him to announce their arrival, while twisting her colorful braid.

It was the girls’ first halloween and they were talking about it nonstop since Keith said they would throw a party and invite Lance’s family — they loved playing with other kids. Their next stop would be a shop, to buy their costumes and the decoration for the party. Keith was excited as well, since Halloween was his favorite celebration of the year.

They had barely stopped the car in front of the farm they’re going to buy the pumpkins when Zola unfastened her seatbelt and ran outside the car, her pineapple patterned dress flowing around her.

“Zola!” yelled Kayla, jumping off the car.

Keith held her hand before she took off after her sister.

“Let her go, she wants to run a little.” he knew it was difficult for her not to feel responsible for her sister, having taken care of her for years, but he wanted her to feel free of that weight on her shoulder and be just the twelve year old kid she was (despite looking like she was 10).He locked the car and they walked side by side with Kayla.

While the two of them were walking slowly, Lance was running after the young girl, who started giggling as Lance finally got to her and put her sitting on his shoulder.

“Don’t run off like that, I’m old.” he said, pretending to be breathless.

“Old man!” she laughed.

“He’s not that old.” said Kayla, furrowing her brows.

“She’s joking.” Keith commented, swinging their hands back and forth. “Relax, Kay, you’re supposed to have fun. Let your sister be.”

“Okay” she mumbled, still frowning.

“If you don’t run in 5 the next seconds I’ll tickle you.” he warned, letting go of her hand. “Five… Four…”

He started pronouncing “three” and the girl took off as fast as a bullet, daring to look at him and stick her tongue to him. Zola started digging her kneels on Lance to release her; she wanted to run in her sister's direction. There were a few other families in there, since they lived in the skirts of the town and it was the only near farm.

“Careful, Zola!” Lance told her, looking worried.

The old couple of farmers who were near them smiled at the kids. Lance waited for Keith and intertwined his fingers with his husband’s. Keith felt the sun rays on his skin and was glad the weather was nice on that day.

“Did you know?” Lance asked him, making him curious.

“ _Here it comes_.”

One particular thing he found cool about his husband was that he always came up with the most random facts about what they were doing, such as explaining how many pesticide had the fruits in the market and naming them all while they were buying it — not that nice if you actually want to eat the fruits — and things like that. He was already expecting Lance to start telling him about the pumpkins, and the expectation wasn’t in vain.

“They start preparing the ground for planting the pumpkin seeds in late april and throughout may.” he said, as if he had found something amazing while researching it.

“Really?” Keith got curious.

“Yes!” he got excited that it picked up Keith’s interest. “Then, they start planting the seeds around June and July. At first, they use sprinklers to irrigate them, but after a couple of weeks they use a dripping irrigation system.”

“Which means?”

“It looks like a hose with holes on it.” he shrugged his shoulder. “I guess.”

“Cool! I didn’t imagine it was like this.” Keith said, complimenting his husband for the research, to which he answered with a silly and shy smile.

“Also, they put nitrogen and phosphorus on the water to make them grow” he said, enthusiastically.

“Isn’t it harmful?”

“It is…” he thought for a while “Nitrogen can poison the water and phosphorus causes erosion on the soil. But for a long time it was studied and maybe they’ve already brought a solution for that...” he scratched the back of his head, embarrassed “I didn’t reach that part on my research.”

“Hey, you did great!” Keith said “I’m impressed you memorised this much, you nerd.” he smirked and kissed him on his cheek.

“I wanted to know what we’re consuming, you know?” he mumbled.

A few feets away from them, the girls were already surrounding the pumpkins they wanted. For Keith’s surprise, Kayla raised one — it was the ugliest pumpkin he had ever seen, but he wouldn’t say anything if that’s the one she chose — with the triple of her head size above her head. Lance freaked out but before he could say something, Keith stopped him.

“Hon’, you may scare her and she will let it fall on her head.” he told his husband. “Kay, sweetie, put the pumpkin down and wait for us to reach you.”

She nodded and put it back to it’s place. Zola went off and started socializing with a random kid she found on her way to pick a pumpkin. She was so lovely, helping the younger kid to carry the pumpkin they chose around the pumpkin patch. The child’s parents were smiling at her.

“She’s so sociable!” said Keith, amazed.

“Don’t know who she took after.” said Lance, playing innocent.

Keith laughed at his husbands silliness. They called Zola back to chose her own pumpkin and Lance pick two bigger ones while Keith helped the girls carrying theirs. As she was returning, she tripped and fell down. Her eyes welled up and her lower lip started trembling. Keith didn’t know what to do.

He put the pumpkins down and kneeled next to her, looking to see the extension of the damage. She had scraped hands and knee, but she was trying to hold back her tears.

“You can cry if you want to.” he whispered to her “It must hurt.”

She shook her head, her twin afro puffs shaking too. Keith cleaned her tears and carried her back to the car princess style. He looked behind him, Kayla was once again carrying the big pumpkin as if it weighted nothing and Lance was complaining about it, behind her. She obeyed, putting it on the ground and stomping her way back to the car. She closed the door angrily and Keith raised an eyebrow to her. He fastened Zola’s seatbelt, then waited for Lance to pay for the pumpkins and carry them to the car.

  


Kayla’s temper got better as they were reaching home and she went back to her usual expression. Keith was happy she was starting to get comfortable displaying her feelings, even if it meant her ranting when she disagreed with something they said. She was used to be independent; getting angry if they tried to help her out or say she couldn’t do something, but cooling off sooner than they expected of a teenager.

Lance carried Zola inside their home to treat her wounds, and Keith secretly let Kayla help him with the pumpkins, giving the smaller one to her. She smiled to him, shy, and entered. They had this connection, as if they were kindred souls, and she felt like he was the one who understood her the best in the world.

They started cleaning the pumpkin with the talkative Zola asking them a hundred question and making them laugh. Keith got to display his abilities with his knife when it came to pumpkin carving. Lance couldn’t get used to his artistic sense and his precision, but it was the first time the girls saw it and they were looking at his every action, amazed.

“I want to do it too.” Kayla pouted.

“I won’t hand you a knife.” she looked like she was going to complain, so Keith added “It will be a bad example to your sister.”  
She got quiet, knowing she was wrong but not willing to admit he was right. Lance, to calm things, gave her a pen.

“Draw something you want and Keith will do it.”

She draw it, and they were surprised by how beautiful it was. She drew herself and Zola, and Keith couldn’t help but compliment her skills.

The smile she gave him in return was so sincere, as if they finally could break through the wall she built during all those years in space. She had a dimple on her right cheek, just like her sister, and her smile could light up the darkest corner of their hearts. They felt so proud of themselves for making this quiet kid smile that it felt like Christmas to them.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was nice developing their family relationship. But I have to confess it was very difficult for me to write about pumpkin picking because in my country there's no such a thing as Halloween or pumpking picking, so I've done a little bit of a research on this.  
> Also, I wanted to write more about Keith's amazing carving skills, but there were other things I ended up focusing. It was satisfactory for me, so I hope you enjoyed it as well.  
> See ya~  
> ~Lee


	28. Day 30: Full Moon

**Day 30 (vampire/werewolf): Full moon**

 

Keith woke up feeling a weight on his chest. He was glad he was already dead, otherwise he would’ve died in that moment with the werewolf lying on top of him. He was breathing with difficulty, while the wolf snored — an habit he had whether he was in his human or animal form. His nose was buried in the crook of Keith’s neck, and it was dry and warm, as a dog’s. He smiled, feeling cozy underneath that giant fur ball.

It was still afternoon. He knew it because his body was sluggish and he wanted to go back to sleep; with the werewolf on his chest, he was incapable of doing so. Using his inhuman strength, he gently raised the wolf and laid him beside him, on the bed. Unconscious, he turned back into his human form, grabbing Keith’s arm and using it as a pillow.

It had been a few months since Lance were bitten by a vengeful werewolf who disliked Keith, and his body wasn’t used to the changes yet. He kept swifting between one and the other, even more when full moon nights approached. Lance scratched his bare chest; his eyes started to open slowly, a drowsy smile on his face because the first thing he saw was Keith. The blinders were shut, but Keith could see every and each one of his freckles spreaded on his face, chest and shoulders. He could see his burning blue eyes and the prettiest smile he had ever seen, fangs and all.

“Will you join me tonight?” Lance asked in a hoarse voice.

“Yes.” Keith answered, yawning, “Let’s go back to sleep.”

And so they did.

  


Later that day, Keith was getting ready to run with Lance. His boyfriend’s favorite thing in a full moon night was to run in a forest near their house. Lance was practically grounded, sitting on the couch with his arms folded, waiting for Keith to get ready. He was bugging Keith while he was bathing, hurrying him and whining, so Keith told him to sit in there or he wouldn’t go with him for the run — which was a lie, he couldn’t let his boyfriend alone —, so he listened and went to the living room patiently, or almost. On nights like this, his instincts were at the maximum, and the animal inside him would get impatient to be released, to be free from his two legged prison.

Keith drove them to the forest, letting the car lights off so no one would spot them in the darkness. Nights like that was dangerous for a vampire to be out alone, and not only him but Lance could be caught in a fight if they weren’t cautious enough about their surroundings. He shook off the ominous feeling, reminding himself that he wasn’t alone. In that exact moment, Lance touches his hand. He could say it was a coincidence, but Lance could sniff his emotion — even if it sounded awkward — and knew he was feeling unsettled, as he always did.

Part of him couldn’t forgive himself for indirectly causing harm to his boyfriend. He got attacked because he was with Keith, because Keith was convinced it was okay to go out, and now his boyfriend was a night creature such as him.

“Keith, I’m okay.” said Lance, knowing his boyfriend still blamed himself for what happened. He knew none of them was at fault for being naive, and he kinda liked the strength and agility that came along with the huge amount of fur he let on the rug and the constant transformations that accompanied his mood swings.

“I know. I’m sorry, we’re supposed to be enjoying our night.” Keith sighed and tried to smile, his sharp fangs showing up.

They parked in a clearing surrounded by tall pine trees, which cast shadows on their direction, cleared by the bright silver light of the full moon. While Keith was getting his backpack of the backseat, Lance jumped off the car and started stripping, which caught Keith’s full attention. The vampire couldn’t get used to the naturality with which Lance would take off his clothes; he wasn’t like that before he turned into a werewolf. The change was refreshing.

“ _Is that a wolf thing? Being shameless?_ ” he thought, laughing. That attracted Lance’s eyes, now golden, to him.

“What?” he asked, trying to hide his body when he was hit by embarrassment, blushing.

“Now you try to cover?” Keith raised an eyebrow, smirking. “I was laughing at how you get easily naked nowadays.”

“Clothes make my skin sore.” he complained, stretching for the change. “You should try it too.” he suggested, seeming uninterested. Nonetheless, Keith knew he was flustered because of his heart beats increasing. He bit his lips to stop himself from laughing again.

“Sure, I’ll try it someday.” he said, ironically.

Keith’s jaw dropped every time he witnessed Lance’s transformation. The fur covered his body and his bones made loud noises as they reassembled, breaking and shaping up again one by one. He asked if Lance felt pain on the process, but his boyfriend said he didn’t feel it, it was like a blur to him as the excitement and desire for freedom took over him.

His body transformed, his golden eyes now stared at Keith. The thing he missed the most as he looked at wolf Lance was his deep blue eyes and the loving expression that softened his features. Wolf Lance looked always wary of his environment; his instincts were against a vampire next to him, even if the man inside the wolf skin knew Keith was his boyfriend and would never hurt him. His wolf feelings started changing recently as he learned to control his animal counterpart and shove back the fight or flight instinct.

 

Hours of running through the woods later, Keith was feeling drained and Lance laid on the ground, huffing. He gave Keith a wolf smile, his tongue hanging.

“You know we have to go back, right?” he asked, having fun mocking the wolf.

He answered with a huff, and if he could roll his eyes, he would have done that; imagining it made Keith smile.

“Let’s rest for a while.” he said, sitting beside Lance.

Keith was amused when Lance showed him his belly, out of nowhere, wagging his tail. It was the first time the wolf showed him any sign of weakness or trust since Lance got bitten. Carefully, he touched the wolf’s chest, carressing it.

“You’re amazing, Lance.” he kept petting his boyfriend, scratching under his jaw and behind the ears. “You already can control yourself  in your wolf form.” Keith was impressed.

After the agitation from the run settled down, he felt his body sluggish, as if it was morning. He laid on the ground, breathing the pure air of the night and smelling the grass and dew on the leaves near him. It was dangerous to lay there without protection and Lance was still too green to fight for them. He knew it, and despite all that, he couldn’t force his body to move. Lance noticed something was wrong as Keith’s hand slipped of his fur.

“— Keith! Keith!” he heard his boyfriend’s voice, feeling like he was underneath water and Lance was trying to pull him out.

Something hot slipped down his throat. For a moment, he got scared he was swallowing water, and coughed. When he gathered the force to open his eyes, his shirt was wet with blood. It smelled rich, and made his stomach rumble.

“Keith!” Lance called him again, and he focused on his boyfriend, who worriedly tried to bite his wrist again to open a wound and feed Keith. Keith held his hand.

“I’m fine.” he said, tired.

Only then he noticed he was on the back seat of the car. Lance must have brought him all the way there. He sat and tried to move to the front seat. Lance grabbed his hand.

“You won’t drive.”

“But it’s dangerous for you to drive in a full moon, you could turn back to your wolf form.” he tried to complain, but two things he knew.

First: Lance was right, he shouldn't drive with his body in this condition. Second: they were in jeopardy out there, in the woods, and staying there until Keith felt better was not the best solution.

He sighed, giving up, and Lance sat on the driver’s seat.

  


Keith was tense all the way back to their house, but Lance assured he was fine. He didn’t lose his temper despite a deer jumping on the street in front of their vehicle, and Keith felt a little relieved for that. He was being overprotective with his boyfriend, but he knew the suffering of being recently transformed. Even in present he would be unintentionally careless, such as running until he got tired, not noticing he needed to drink blood and passing out.

“I’m sorry, I made you run too much.” said Lance when they arrived, helping him to get off the car.

“No, love, it was my fault, I should’ve known better than to go on a run without carrying a blood bag with me.” he said in a weak voice.

“Why would you carry a blood bag around while you’re with me?” he complained, angry.

“Because” Lance put him on the couch “you’re not my food. Moreover, it’s dangerous for a wolf to lose much blood, you could go berserk.” he said, as a matter of fact.

“Keith, I’d be fine, okay?” he frowned, kneeling in front of Keith and between his legs, taking his boyfriend’s face on his hands.

“No, Lance, I’m not doing it to you, after all the harm I’ve do—”

“Don’t.” he shushed Keith, kissing his forehead. “Please, don’t blame yourself. You’re the best thing that ever happened in my life, and I don’t regret a thing. More than that, I’m happy I can feed you without even getting dizzy now, I just have to eat a lot and I’ll be fine.” he pleaded, looking concerned. “Keith, let me do it for you.” he whispered.

Keith was weak to his boyfriend’s puppy face.

“Okay.” he couldn’t resist the hunger any longer.

Keith bit Lance’s neck, swallowing his blood eagerly. He embraced Keith’s waist, pulling him closer. His boyfriend’s hand entered his shirt, scratching his back. Keith moaned without releasing his neck. Their breaths were heavy as both got struck by the feeding lust. When Keith released his prey, licking the wound and seeing it close completely, he got locked by Lance’s gaze, his pupils dilated to the point it was almost impossible to see the thin blue line of his iris.

The only warn he got from Lance was the growl that resonated on his chest shortly before he pounced on Keith, biting his neck. For a moment, he got scared, but shortly after he was attacked, Lance released him.

“Mine.” he whispered on his ear.

The vampire’s eyes grew bigger. Lance was claiming him as his mate, and his heart throbbed so hard he was afraid of having a heart attack, even if it was impossible for a vampire.

Lance’s body relaxed against his, and they laid in silence the way they were, taking their time do settle their feelings into place. Keith was moved and scared at the same time: what if Lance said that because of the excitement born from the feeding?

“I love you.” mumbled Lance, as if he was suddenly hit by an epiphanic comprehension of his feelings. “I love you.” repeated him “I love you!” he laughed.

“I love you too.” Keith got shy as he looked at him in the eyes. He was enlightened with joy and love all over his face.

They couldn’t feel better even if they were born again. The most perfect moment was that one, when they reached the realisation of their mutual feelings; feelings that they had never put into words before.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand I did it!  
> Sorry for the lame last paragraph, I've spent way too much time writing this and I didn't know how to end it properly (lol)  
> Also, sorry for the two days I didn't write. You probably know by now, but my country is passing through a hard time, and I was struck by desperation (several times in the notes I've said I was crying and the reason was the political situation) for two days in a row, which made impossible to write anything... I'll try to do the two days in one as an extra, but no promisses.  
> Hope you have enjoyed this chapter, it felt good to be back, and I really like the result.  
> See ya tomorrow for THE VERY LAST day of Keithtober.  
> ~Lee


	29. Day 31: Darkest night

Day 31 (Halloween): Darkest night

It was after midnight when Keith heard someone knocking at the front door, which was weird since he had the bedroom door closed and the blanket covering his head, as well as the pillow. He felt Lance’s arm around him, heavily. Normally, he would feel pleased by his proximity, but now he felt trapped, and he didn’t know why.

He tried to raise up to pick up the door, noticing his body wouldn’t move. His breath got caught on his lungs, his heart thumping loudly on his chest. He then heard the door opening with a loud crack, as if someone was breaking in. The person footsteps got near the bedroom door, and Keith felt cold sweat on his face and shivered. He wasn’t one to feel easily scared, but that night something very wrong was going on. Being unable to move on itself felt terrible; he hated to be vulnerable.

He then remembered that Lance was with him, and tried to call out to him. He couldn’t open his mouth, his jaw seemed to be glued in place. His desperation increased, and he thought he was going to die and his heart stop working.

Keith heard the bedroom door opening and flinched. His body was trembling, trying to react somehow to the fight or flight instinct that run all over his body. A single tear slipped from his eyes. The steps were getting closer to his side of the bed. He was scared Lance would get caught in the situation and get hurt. Keith didn’t understand why he didn’t wake up or react in face of danger.

When that thought crossed his head, he became aware of how cold was the arm around, if it was a corpse holding him down.

 

He sat on the bed, his ragged breath making him relieved he was actually breathing. Keith looked at Lance, sighing when he seemed to be okay. He held Lance’s hand, almost jumping out of his skin when he grabbed it back with a steel hold. He looked at his boyfriend, scared, and noticed scars on his face that he never saw before.

He opened his eyes, and it was all black, without his usual blue eyes; the creepy smile he gave Keith frightened him senselessly.

Keith tried to tear his away from his grip, failing.

 

Keith opened his eyes, gaping. He tried to release himself from someone who held him in their arms, frantically moving.

“Thank God you’re awake!” he heard Lance’s voice, and tried to look at his face. There was his blue eyes, his deep eyes which he loved, not some weird alien ones. Lance passed his fingers through Keith’s hair, trying to calm him down. “I woke up to you tossing and turning. You’re sweating like crazy, I thought you were sick…”

“I—” his mouth was dry from the fear he felt.

Lance handed him a bottle of water, not letting go of his hand. He was scared and couldn't exactly tell Keith that he stopped breathing during his dream, wenting still. Lance thought his boyfriend would never open his eyes again.

When Keith told him about his dream, Lance assured him it was only a nightmare. After Keith went to sleep again, still impressed by what happened, Lance left the bedroom, heading to the kitchen. He stopped his track when he saw dirty footsteps on the floor, illuminated by the dim light of the full moon outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's my final entry!! (I may write the extra to compensate for the two days I didn't write, but it woun't be so soon, I fear)  
> Man, that was scary as heeeeeell. I don't like to write scary stuff because I get easily frightened. I tried to write about sleep paralysis but it ended up being some sort of spirit story. Believe me, I'm not scared of spirits, but writing about it in a creepy way... Geez, I don't want to proofread it (no joking).  
> Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. With this chapter I finally say bye to Keithtober and the fic. Maybe when my vacation arrives (if the fandom is still alive, that's it) I'll try to write more about adult klance, their daughters and adashi fixing their relationship.  
> See you in a near future?  
> ~Lee


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